TeraWulf secures Google backstop for $19 billion Anthropic lease

TeraWulf (WULF) said on Nov. 4 that Google LLC agreed to backstop certain obligations of Anthropic under leases at its Hawesville, Kentucky campus, a step the company said would strengthen its project financing.

Shares fell 2.2% in regular trading as of 10:06 a.m. ET, from a regular-session close of $12.53.

TeraWulf develops, owns and operates large-scale, power-backed digital infrastructure in the United States, purpose-built for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence workloads. The company also operates the Lake Mariner Data Campus in New York.

The leases cover about 401 megawatts of critical IT load for high-performance computing operations. TeraWulf’s subsidiary Raylan Data LLC signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic, PBC in July, the company said.

The leases cover three buildings, CB-1, CB-2 and CB-3. Anthropic’s rent starts when each data hall is delivered, and delivery is expected in phases from late 2027 through the second quarter of 2028.

Under the Google credit support agreements, signed Nov. 4 with Raylan, Justified DataPower LLC, Anthropic and Google, Google may pay the rent due and assume a lease if a payment default occurs or Anthropic becomes subject to an insolvency event, after notice from Raylan.

In certain circumstances, Google may instead pay a termination fee, and upon payment it would be entitled to acquire an equity interest in Raylan. Google may also defer its election for a specified period, during which it would pay all unpaid rent and additional rent that comes due.

The backstop takes effect on the commencement date of the final data hall under each lease. It ends when Anthropic, or an affiliate that has agreed to guarantee its obligations, achieves and maintains certain investment grade credit ratings for at least three months. The termination fee amortizes over a defined term.

Google LLC is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Alphabet’s senior unsecured debt is rated AA+ by S&P Global Ratings and Aa2 by Moody’s.

“Cost of capital is fundamental to infrastructure development,” said Patrick Fleury, Chief Financial Officer of TeraWulf. “Strong investment-grade credit support strengthens the project’s financing profile and our ability to pursue competitive long-term debt.”

TeraWulf also signed a definitive engineering, procurement and construction agreement with Fluor Enterprises, Inc. on a GMP basis for three data center buildings at the Justified campus. The agreement builds on a limited notice to proceed announced in March 2026.

The Fluor agreement covers engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning. It sets defined delivery milestones, open-book cost reporting and procurement oversight. Guaranteed maximum pricing is being established as engineering and procurement progress.

Under the milestone schedule, phased ready-for-service completions are expected to begin in late 2027 and continue through the second quarter of 2028.

“Fluor gives us the ability to scale execution without building a global engineering and construction organization internally,” said Paul Prager, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TeraWulf. “Together, we’re focused on delivering our customer commitments with disciplined cost management and clear schedule accountability.”

On Nov. 4, Raylan and Anthropic also entered into amendments to the Justified leases in connection with the Google backstop.

The company said it recently expanded contracted power capacity to 1 GW at its Muskie Data Campus in eastern Kentucky.