TeraWulf $19B AI Lease Faces $3.5B Debt Check

TeraWulf $19B AI Lease Faces $3.5B Debt Check

New York, July 9, 2026, 17:04 EDT

  • TeraWulf Inc. ended the regular session at $23.20, gaining 1.62%. The stock was quoted at $23.33 in late after-hours trade before 4:45 p.m. EDT.
  • Investing.com, citing Bloomberg News, reported the company is lining up around $3.5 billion in debt for its AI data center project in Kentucky. Morgan Stanley is slated to head up the financing, according to the report.
  • TeraWulf’s debt plan is the real trial for its big headline figure. Its 20-year Anthropic lease pencils out to around $950 million a year in average contracted revenue. But rent payments begin only when capacity gets delivered.

TeraWulf Inc. traded higher Thursday after the company put a number on the cost of converting its $19 billion Anthropic lease into an operational AI campus: $3.5 billion in fresh debt.

This is important now as the focus moves from “who signed the lease?” to “who pays for the build?” The package being reported would use leveraged loans—which companies with more debt often take on—and high-yield bonds. Those bonds pay more, but lenders are taking more credit risk. Investing.com

The Kentucky site will be big, even for AI infrastructure. TeraWulf said Anthropic plans to lease around 401 megawatts of critical IT load—power for servers and other computing hardware—at the Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky.

MeasureFigureInvestor read-through
Reported debt package~$3.5 billionThat’s roughly 18% of the $19 billion top-line lease
Anthropic lease value~$19 billion over 20 yearsStraight average works out to about $950 million yearly
Capacity under lease401 MWAbout $47.4 million per MW in locked-in revenue across 20 years
Debt per MW~$8.7 millionThis is the initial financing per megawatt before lease return builds
Market value at latest quoted data~$9.81 billionDebt package is about 36% of stock market cap

The rent doesn’t kick in right away. TeraWulf said in its filing that capacity will come online in phases, starting late 2027 and finishing in early 2028. Anthropic will start paying rent once each leased site is ready.

TeraWulf ended the day at $23.20, swinging from $23.01 to $24.57 on more than 50 million shares traded. Buyers showed up across AI-infrastructure names. The Nasdaq Composite added 1.30% late.

Company/indexTickerLatest price/levelDay moveMarket cap
TeraWulf Inc.NASDAQ:WULF$23.20up 1.7%$9.81 bln
Applied Digital CorporationNASDAQ:APLD$32.29added 2.7%$9.11 bln
Cipher Digital Inc.NASDAQ:CIFR$23.26rose 6.5%$9.42 bln
Nasdaq Composite26,206.89gained 1.30%

The shift in the peers didn’t come out of nowhere. Compass Point’s Michael Donovan and Ed Engel said Applied Digital, TeraWulf, and Cipher are a few AI-infrastructure stocks still trading under the value of their signed data-center deals. The analysts said investors should focus more on locked-in rental income, not just old bitcoin-mining metrics.

TeraWulf Chairman and CEO Paul Prager said the Anthropic lease “validates our strategy” and creates a “long-duration revenue stream.” Prager said selling the Abernathy site to a group led by Fluidstack lets TeraWulf put capital back into projects where it keeps direct ownership and control over operations. TeraWulf Inc.

The ramp is steep. TeraWulf posted $34.0 million in Q1 revenue, with $21.0 million from high-performance computing leases. HPC, or high-performance computing, covers big computing setups for AI and other tough workloads. The company had 60 MW of active critical IT HPC capacity at Lake Mariner on March 31, well under the 401 MW connected to Anthropic.

The risk is clear. Delays in building, higher costs for power or gear, or tough loan terms could delay rent and hurt the stock. TeraWulf said results may change if it can’t finish campuses as planned, keep within budgets, get good financing, or handle power and other operating risks.

Investors are watching for the next numbers to move shares, and they won’t be as flashy as the lease. Key figures are coming on debt pricing, covenants, construction updates and when the first rent starts rolling in. At this point, WULF has moved beyond a simple bitcoin miner pivoting to AI. The trade now is on credit execution, with a big tenant locked in.

Leokadia Głogulska

Leokadia Głogulska is a financial and technology journalist at TS2.tech. Her coverage ranges from stocks and artificial intelligence to space technology and developments across global markets. She graduated from Wrocław University of Economics and Business and worked in financial analysis before becoming a business journalist.

US Stock Market Today Updates

AI PORTFOLIO

Top Stock Picks

Today’s highest-ranked model selections.

#1 Strong buy

Alphabet

NASDAQ:GOOGL 92/100 • ★★★★½
#2 Strong buy

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

NYSE:TSM 89/100 • ★★★★½
#3 Buy

S&P Global

NYSE:SPGI 88/100 • ★★★★
#4 Buy on weakness

Amazon

NASDAQ:AMZN 86/100 • ★★★★
#5 Buy on weakness

Microsoft

NASDAQ:MSFT 84/100 • ★★★★
View full portfolio
Editorial model selection. Not personalised advice.
MARKET CALENDAR

Key Events Today

The catalysts most likely to move markets.

#1

U.S. index futures reopen at 18:00 ET

This is the clearest scheduled U.S.-market price-discovery point today and can transmit weekend news into equity-index futures before Monday's cash session.

#2

New Zealand retail sales at 18:45 ET

The Q2 retail package can move NZD and regional risk sentiment. Spillover to U.S. assets is usually secondary unless the result is unusually large.

#3

No scheduled domestic U.S. data or corporate reports

The absence of U.S. releases, earnings, IPO pricings and split events leaves fewer scheduled catalysts, increasing the relative importance of weekend headlines and positioning at the futures reopen.

View full calendar
Times and estimates may change. Verify before trading.
Fubo hands reins to Disney+ alum, puts $12.6M on the table in new 8-K
Previous Story

Fubo hands reins to Disney+ alum, puts $12.6M on the table in new 8-K

Plug Power Lands Major Hydrogen Deal, But Stock Stays Cautious
Next Story

Plug Power Lands Major Hydrogen Deal, But Stock Stays Cautious