TeraWulf Gets Google Backstop for $19B Anthropic Kentucky Lease

TeraWulf said on Nov. 4 that Google has signed credit support agreements for debt financing tied to about $19 billion of Anthropic lease commitments at its Hawesville, Kentucky, campus.

The Justified Data Campus carries a 20-year Anthropic lease, signed in July 2026, for approximately 401 MW of critical IT load, according to TeraWulf's release and its 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Reuters reported that TeraWulf also expanded its agreement with the engineering and construction firm Fluor Enterprises. Anthropic's rent starts as each data hall is delivered, and TeraWulf expects those deliveries in phases from late 2027 through the second quarter of 2028.

For data-center financing, the backstop puts Alphabet's credit behind part of the tenant's rent once it takes effect. TeraWulf noted that Alphabet's senior unsecured debt is rated AA+ by S&P Global Ratings and Aa2 by Moody's, and Chief Financial Officer Patrick Fleury said the support strengthens the company's ability to pursue competitive long-term debt. Spread over the two stated figures, $19 billion for 401 MW works out to about $47 million of contracted rent per MW of critical IT load across the 20-year term. That is Voltgrid arithmetic, because the release gives no annual rent schedule.

How the Google backstop works

TeraWulf filed three credit support agreements, one each for the leased premises CB-1, CB-2 and CB-3. Each backstop becomes effective on the commencement date of the final data hall under its lease, so it does not cover the build period. It ends if Anthropic, or an affiliate that guarantees the lease, reaches specified investment-grade credit ratings and keeps them for at least three months.

If Anthropic misses a rent payment or becomes insolvent, Google can pay the rent due and assume the lease as tenant. Under certain circumstances it can instead pay a termination fee, which would give it the right to acquire an equity interest in Raylan Data LLC, the TeraWulf subsidiary that leases to Anthropic. The fee amortizes over a defined term, and the filing gives no amount.

The form of agreement filed as Exhibit 10.1 adds two conditions that tie the backstop to Google hardware. It requires Anthropic and its affiliates to use only Google-approved tensor processing units (TPUs) as accelerators in the premises for the term. It also bars Google from choosing the termination route in the first six years unless the installed TPU pods could draw less than 50% of the tenant's critical power. The exhibit is a form, so the executed terms could differ.

Construction and context

Fluor's definitive engineering, procurement and construction agreement covers three data center buildings on a guaranteed-maximum-price basis. It builds on a limited notice to proceed announced in March 2026 and adds open-book cost reporting and delivery milestones. Reuters reported that initial capacity is expected online in the second half of 2027. The release does not describe how Justified will be supplied with power.

Reuters described the deal as the latest case of large technology companies backstopping smaller AI infrastructure players. Voltgrid reported earlier on Broadcom's $43B Anthropic backstop and on NVIDIA's reported talks on credit for an Nscale site. TeraWulf separately said it recently expanded contracted power capacity to 1 GW at its Muskie Data Campus in eastern Kentucky.

What is not confirmed yet

Project debt is still anticipated rather than closed, and neither the release nor the 8-K gives a loan size, lenders or pricing. Fluor's guaranteed maximum price is not yet set. Because the backstop starts only with the last data hall in each lease, TeraWulf carries delivery risk until then. Reuters reported TeraWulf shares were down about 3% in premarket trading on Nov. 4, amid a broader slide in AI data-center stocks. The next checkpoints are the financing announcement, the Fluor price and the first data hall handover in late 2027.