TeraWulf NASDAQ:WULF said on Friday it reached a $19 billion deal with Anthropic, but the agreement includes a $3.5 billion payment that the company did not break down.
TeraWulf Inc. NASDAQ:WULF finished Friday at $21.97, only a 3.7% gain from its July 2 close, after announcing a $19 billion, 20-year data-center lease with Anthropic. The stock fell 5.3% Friday. Traders are now less focused on the contract size and more concerned about build-out costs.
Anthropic is looking at about $3.5 billion in planned debt for its project, Chief Financial Officer Patrick Fleury said. The package should involve a leveraged loan, which is institutional debt for borrowers with more leverage, plus high-yield bonds. Those come with sub-investment ratings and higher interest costs. Morgan Stanley NYSE:MS will lead the financing, Bloomberg reported. Rent starts as the 401 megawatts of “critical IT load”—power going straight to computing—are turned over from late 2027 to early 2028. Investing.com
The piece that’s getting less attention is the price TeraWulf seems to have locked in per unit of power. If you break down the numbers, the Anthropic lease comes to around $2.37 million per megawatt-year—that’s for one megawatt of computing load over one year—while TeraWulf’s Lake Mariner deals with Fluidstack run about $1.86 million for the same amount.
| Contract | Initial term | Critical IT load | Contracted revenue | Implied annual revenue | Revenue per MW-year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justified Data–Anthropic | 20 years | 401 MW | $19.0 billion | $950 million | $2.37 million |
| Lake Mariner–Fluidstack | 10 years | About 360 MW | $6.7 billion | $670 million | About $1.86 million |
The implied numbers come from basic math using the contract values, term lengths and capacity the company gave. These are not company guidance for profit or cash flow.
The revenue-density premium comes out to around 27%. That doesn’t guarantee Anthropic brings higher margins, since the mix of services, yearly pricing, project size and operating terms can be different. Even so, the numbers back up CEO Paul Prager’s point that “you just cannot create overnight megawatts.” Needham’s John Todaro said the Anthropic deal “one of the more attractive leases in the sector.” TradingView
The jump here is big compared to TeraWulf’s current business. The company posted $34 million in first-quarter revenue—$21 million from high-performance-computing (HPC) leasing, and $13 million from bitcoin mining. Just annualizing that gets $136 million, so the Anthropic contract at $950 million a year is about seven times the latest quarterly run rate. That’s before accounting for costs, financing, or actual delivery.
The stock outpaced the Nasdaq Composite last week, although some AI-infrastructure names did better. IREN Ltd. NASDAQ:IREN rose roughly 6%. Applied Digital Corp. NASDAQ:APLD dropped almost 6%.
| July 2 to July 10 | July 10 close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| TeraWulf | $21.97 | up 3.7% |
| IREN | $41.14 | up 6.0% |
| Applied Digital | $31.15 | fell 5.8% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 26,281.61 | gained 1.7% |
The July 2 close is used for comparison as U.S. markets were closed July 3 for Independence Day.
Trading was choppy despite the weekly finish. TeraWulf hit $25.15 Monday but fell 8.9% Tuesday, then jumped 12.8% Wednesday, before giving back 5.3% Friday. Volume totaled around 251 million shares for the week. Shares closed Friday 12.6% under Monday’s intraday peak.
Earlier financing deals give a ballpark for costs. TeraWulf’s Lake Mariner arm raised $3.2 billion of secured notes at a 7.75% coupon in October. The Abernathy JV followed in December with $1.3 billion at 7.25%. If the new $3.5 billion debt package gets similar terms, the annual cash interest lands around $254 million to $271 million before fees and paying back principal. That’s about 27% to 29% of the Anthropic lease’s average gross revenue per year. Terms could shift depending on the Kentucky structure and credit backing.
The downside risks are clear. Delays in construction, shortages of power equipment or higher costs could push out rental income as interest expenses pile up. TeraWulf has already pointed to its need for more capital, finishing campus work on time, and getting power equipment at acceptable prices. Debt that costs too much or another equity raise could hit returns or leave current shareholders diluted.
TeraWulf’s investor calendar shows no scheduled company events for the upcoming week. That puts focus on any updates around financing, the Abernathy stake, and the Anthropic credit support. June CPI numbers hit Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. EDT, with retail sales data following Thursday. A higher inflation print could lift yields as TeraWulf lines up its largest funding round.
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