AI company behind Claude signs $19 billion lease at this KY data center campus
The artificial intelligence company behind the chatbot Claude signed a $19 billion, 20-year lease at a Kentucky data center campus being built in Hancock County.
California-based Anthropic will be the tenant at the Justified DataPower site in Hawesville, the facility’s developer — TeraWulf Inc. — announced July 6. The AI company is one of the world’s most valuable startups valued at nearly $1 trillion, and is the first AI firm to be a publicly announced data center tenant in Kentucky.
The lease agreement is anticipated to add approximately $19 billion of contracted revenue over its 20-year term and begin expanding TeraWulf’s long-term infrastructure relationship with Anthropic.
In a news release, TeraWulf Inc. Chairman and CEO Paul Prager said the lease validates the developer’s strategy and “creates a framework for future expansion, and demonstrates the value of our ability to source power, develop infrastructure, and secure long-term customer commitments.”
Following the Monday announcement, TeraWulf’s shares soared. The developer, publicly listed on Nasdaq under the ticker WULF, saw its premarket trading increase more than 16%. At market open July 6, shares were $24.12, a nearly 13% increase on the day.
The Hancock County data center campus is still under construction and initial capacity is projected to come online in the second half of 2027.
The campus will accommodate 401 megawatts of critical infrastructure technology load by early 2028, or the power equivalent needed to supply at least 300,000 homes with continuous electricity.
In February, TeraWulf acquired the former Century Aluminum smelter which included 250 buildable acres and immediate access to power infrastructure, including multiple transmission lines, an energized substation and direct connection to the regional transmission network.
Then in April, Big Rivers Electric Corp. filed a service agreement with the state’s Public Service Commission to continue serving the site while protecting existing member-consumers, providing financial benefits and supporting system reliability.
When it acquired the site, TeraWulf said it would invest between $3 billion and $4 billion constructing two data center buildings that would generate hundreds of short-term construction jobs. Once operational, TeraWulf said there would likely be 100 full-time, permanent jobs for electrical technicians, IT specialists, facilities operators and more.
The developer previously estimated the project could contribute more than $14 million annually in state sales taxes in addition to contributing $7 million in annual school taxes.
At a community meeting in March, TeraWulf executives said the data center campus would use a closed-loop cooling system and would not rely on municipal water for its facility operations, according to the Dubois County Herald.
Like many other data center proposals across the state, the Hawesville project has already faced community opposition. An online petition has more than 1,200 signatures and asks county officials, the governor and the state’s utility regulator to pause approvals until energy, environmental and infrastructure impacts are disclosed and residents are given a voice in what happens at the site.
State lawmakers expanded sales and other tax exemptions for qualified data center projects across the Commonwealth last year, but legislation to protect ratepayers against subsidizing multi-million dollar energy infrastructure upgrades designed to lure and support tech companies died when this year’s General Assembly ended in April.
TeraWulf is also the developer behind the Muskie Data Campus on the site of an abandoned strip mine near Ashland in Boyd County’s East Park.
The hyperscale development there could eventually consume as much electricity as a city the size of San Francisco and is projected to come online at half capacity in 2028.
No tenant has been announced for the Ashland project.
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