TeraWulf Secures $19 Billion AI Data Center Lease with Anthropic, Sells JV Stake

Bitcoin miner TeraWulf, moving deeper into AI infrastructure, signed a 20-year data center lease with Anthropic expected to generate about $19 billion in contract revenue.

The company also announced Monday that it is selling a majority stake in a separate AI data center joint venture to reinvest in wholly owned projects.

The company's shares rose about 12% in Monday morning trading following the announcement, extending a roughly 107% year-to-date gain, according to Yahoo Finance data at the time of writing.

Under the agreement, Anthropic will lease a purpose-built AI data center campus at TeraWulf's Justified Data site in Hawesville, Kentucky. Acquired in February, the facility is designed to support 401 MW of critical IT capacity, with initial operations expected in the second half of 2027 and full buildout targeted for early 2028.

Separately, TeraWulf agreed to sell its 50.1% stake in the Abernathy joint venture, an AI data center project in Texas, to an investor group led by partner Fluidstack. The company said it expects the sale to return its roughly $450 million investment which it plans to reinvest in AI infrastructure projects that it owns outright.

AI demand reshapes Bitcoin mining industry

The announcement comes as demand for AI infrastructure outpaces available computing capacity. Training and running large AI models requires data centers with high-performance chips, advanced cooling systems and access to large amounts of reliable electricity, making power-rich campuses increasingly valuable.

That has created an opportunity for several Bitcoin miners, which already own sites with grid connections, power agreements and other infrastructure needed for energy-intensive computing. While AI data centers use different hardware than crypto mining operations, the overlap has prompted several miners to diversify into AI and high-performance computing (HPC).

However, the pivot comes with significant costs. Blocksbridge Consulting estimated in June that public Bitcoin miners pursuing AI infrastructure may need roughly $50 billion in near-term capital, as AI data centers require far greater investment than traditional Bitcoin mining facilities.

Last month, HIVE Digital signed a three-year, $220 million agreement to provide GPU cloud infrastructure for AI startup Cohere through Bell Canada's AI Fabric, while IREN acquired Spanish data center developer Nostrum Group, adding about 490 MW of secured, grid-connected power as it entered the European AI market.