New York, July 8, 2026, 17:01 (EDT)
- TeraWulf closed up 12.8% at $22.83, with after-hours shares quoted higher.
- The move followed a $19 billion, 20-year Anthropic lease tied to a Kentucky AI data-center campus.
- Analysts lifted targets, but execution risk now shifts to power, financing and delivery.
TeraWulf Inc. shares jumped on Wednesday, leading a mixed U.S. tape, as investors returned to the bitcoin miner-turned-digital infrastructure firm after its long-term lease with Anthropic reset the market’s view of its AI data-center business. The stock closed at $22.83, up 12.8%, and was quoted at $23.22 after hours at 5:01 p.m. in New York.
The move matters now because the deal gives TeraWulf a large, named AI customer and a long revenue runway in a market where power-ready data centers have become scarce. TeraWulf said the lease covers a purpose-built campus in Hawesville, Kentucky, and is expected to generate about $19 billion over the initial 20-year term.
High-performance computing, or HPC — the heavy computing used to train and run AI models — is the new center of the TeraWulf story. The company’s subsidiary will provide Anthropic with about 401 megawatts of critical IT load, meaning power reserved for servers and related equipment, with delivery expected to start in late 2027 and finish in early 2028.
TeraWulf Chairman and Chief Executive Paul Prager said in the company release that the Anthropic lease “validates our strategy” and establishes a long-term revenue stream with a major AI company. He later framed power as the bottleneck, saying, “You just cannot create overnight Megawatts,” according to a Stocktwits report carried by TradingView. TradingView
Wall Street moved quickly. Investing.com reported that Morgan Stanley raised its target to $72 from $66.50, Needham lifted its target to $33 from $28, Compass Point moved to $40 from $28, Bernstein kept an Outperform rating with a $36 target, and Rosenblatt raised its target to $30 from $27.
Needham analyst John Todaro called the contract “one of the more attractive leases in the sector,” according to TheFly comments cited by Stocktwits on TradingView. The same report said Rosenblatt viewed the Anthropic contract as “a significant positive” for TeraWulf’s brownfield development strategy, which means turning an existing industrial site into a data-center campus rather than building from scratch on undeveloped land. TradingView
The trade was not only about WULF. Peers tied to power-hungry digital infrastructure also rose, with IREN up about 8.0% and Cipher Digital up about 6.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2%, the S&P 500 fell 0.28% and the Dow dropped 1.09%.
TeraWulf also moved to simplify its asset base. The company agreed to sell its stake in the Abernathy joint venture to a Fluidstack-led buyer group, with the SEC filing showing about $530 million in aggregate consideration payable in three installments.
The broader pitch is clear enough: TeraWulf wants investors to value it less like a volatile crypto miner and more like an owner of contracted AI infrastructure. Reuters said the Anthropic lease gives the company long-term recurring revenue as it shifts away from reliance on bitcoin mining.
But the stock’s new thesis rests on execution. Rent starts only as leased premises are delivered, and TeraWulf’s SEC filing flagged risks including financing, permits, power availability and cost, and the company’s ability to perform under data-center leases; any delay, budget overrun or tighter credit market could cut into the value investors are now assigning to the contract.
For now, analysts remain firmly positive. TradingView, citing FactSet data, said the average 12-month price target had risen to $38.44 from $38.14, with a Buy consensus across 19 covering analysts and no Holds or Sells.
