Anthropic signs a 20-year, ~$19B lease to use a TeraWulf data center in Kentucky, set to have a ~400MW capacity and to start delivering power in H2 2027
CNBC
Context & Ripple Effects
Anthropic’s Kentucky commitment follows reports that it had begun signing more than a dozen direct data-center leases, marking a shift toward securing infrastructure directly rather than relying only on cloud-provider capacity. It also follows a separate Anthropic-backed Louisiana project with 245MW of initial computing capacity.
The deal sits alongside a broader buildout of very large AI campuses, including Meta’s planned 1GW Indiana site and Nscale’s planned West Virginia expansion. The relevant competitive unit is increasingly long-duration access to power-ready data-center capacity, not simply access to GPUs.
First-order effects
Anthropic obtains a long-term claim on a planned roughly 400MW Kentucky facility, with power delivery targeted for the second half of 2027, giving its compute planning a dedicated future capacity tranche.
TeraWulf gains a major long-duration tenant commitment, tying the project’s economics and development timetable closely to Anthropic’s demand.
Second-order effects
Direct leases of this size reduce the pool of large, power-ready facilities available to other AI developers and cloud providers, increasing pressure to lock up sites earlier in the development cycle.
Data-center developers with viable power capacity become more important counterparties to model companies; developers and infrastructure financiers can pursue longer contracts anchored by AI workloads.
Third-order effects
If direct leasing continues across multiple sites, leading AI labs may evolve into major infrastructure buyers in their own right, complementing rather than exclusively depending on hyperscale cloud arrangements.
The industry’s bottleneck shifts further toward power delivery and project execution: model competition will increasingly be shaped by who can secure dependable multi-year capacity, though whether announced projects reach service on schedule remains consequential.
The trend: AI companies are moving from flexible cloud consumption toward long-term, dedicated commitments for power-intensive data-center capacity.
Today, TeraWulf announced two strategic transactions that significantly advance our AI infrastructure strategy: 👉 A 20-year lease with @AnthropicAI at our Justified Data Campus 👉 The sale of our 50.1% ownership interest in the Abernathy Joint Venture to an investor group led
I have thought for some time, that the labs (and even the hypers) will continue to prefer to do deals with those more pure play co-lo/power/infra management names vs. neoclouds. It's also a cleaner business model, as our report here details. https://www.thediligencestack.com/ ...
era of popping off 20 year data center contracts like candy, what could go wrong? nothing, of course, when future lightcone of value has already been (regulatory) captured!
This complex and strategic set of transactions is yet another reflection of the leadership at @TeraWulfInc under @PaulBPrager and the broader organization. This long-term partnership with @AnthropicAI is built on a foundation of mutual trust in the abilities of our respective
era of popping off 20 year data centers contracts like candy, what could go wrong? nothing, of course, when future lightcone of value has already been captured!
The @AnthropicAI lease represents a landmark customer commitment. ✔️ ~401 MW of critical IT capacity ✔️ ~$19B contracted revenue over the initial term ✔️ Supported by investment-grade credit This creates a long-duration infrastructure revenue stream with one of the world's
The campus will be developed in phases: Hawesville, KY 👉 401 MW critical IT load 👉 Initial delivery expected in late 2027 👉 Full campus expected by early 2028 Beyond the initial deployment, the agreement also establishes a framework for future expansion as AI infrastructure
This complex and strategic set of transactions is yet another reflection of the leadership at TeraWulf under Paul & Nazar, Kerri Langlais, Patrick Fleury and the broader organization. …