Google Will Backstop TeraWulf's Financing for a $19 Billion Anthropic Data Center Lease

TeraWulf said Google will cover Anthropic’s lease obligations if the AI lab defaults, backing debt TeraWulf plans to raise against about $19 billion of lease commitments in Kentucky.

The campus is in Hawesville, and Anthropic’s 20-year lease is written as three leases, one for each of its three buildings. The $19 billion is what Anthropic owes in rent, not the size of the backstop or of any loan. TeraWulf has not yet borrowed against it, and CFO Patrick Fleury said Google’s investment-grade backing improves the company’s ability to pursue competitive long-term debt. Alphabet, Google’s parent, is rated AA+ by S&P Global Ratings and Aa2 by Moody’s, which is the credit TeraWulf expects lenders to weigh.

What does the backstop cover?

If Anthropic stops paying or becomes insolvent, Google can pay the rent due and take over as tenant. It can instead pay a fee to end the lease, and doing so lets Google acquire an equity stake in the TeraWulf subsidiary that is the landlord.

The fee shrinks over time, and its limits are tied in part to the size of the project financing. For the first six years of the backstop, Google can end a lease only in limited cases tied to the equipment installed in a building.

When does it start?

Not yet. The backstop takes effect for each lease once rent begins on its last data hall, and it ends when Anthropic, or an affiliate that guarantees the lease, holds investment-grade ratings for at least three months.

Halls are due in phases from late 2027 through the second quarter of 2028. TeraWulf did not say how lenders are protected before then.

How much debt is still to come?

The project financing the backstop supports has not closed, and TeraWulf did not say how much it will raise or when. A $500 million bridge facility TeraWulf arranged in March for the site was drawn for $100 million, which the company repaid in full on April 16 before ending the facility.

The build itself is under contract. TeraWulf signed a definitive agreement with Fluor to design and construct the three buildings, with the guaranteed maximum price still to be fixed, so the final construction bill is not yet set.

What did Google get last time?

Google gave the same kind of backstop on TeraWulf’s earlier leases with another tenant, Fluidstack, and TeraWulf paid for it. It issued Google warrants for 73,580,000 shares at one cent each, which it recorded at $515.5 million. A Google affiliate also agreed to pay the termination fee to the lenders on TeraWulf’s $3.2 billion of 2030 secured notes, sold in October 2025.

TeraWulf did not say whether Google receives anything similar for the Kentucky backstop.

The test for any developer financing capacity for an AI lab: whose credit sets the loan’s price, and from which date does that guarantee start?