TeraWulf Google Backstop: $19B Anthropic Lease Gets Cover
The TeraWulf Google backstop means Google will stand behind Anthropic’s rent at a bitcoin miner’s Kentucky AI campus. TeraWulf announced it on November 4. If Anthropic defaults, Google could take over the lease, or pay a fee and gain a stake in the project company.
How the TeraWulf Google backstop works
According to Unite.AI’s read of the filing, three credit support agreements cover the CB-1, CB-2 and CB-3 leased premises at the Justified Data Campus in Hawesville, Kentucky. The parties are TeraWulf, its subsidiary Raylan Data, Anthropic and Google. The deal supports debt financing for roughly $19 billion of lease commitments, per the company and press reports.
After an Anthropic payment default or insolvency, Google can pay the rent due and take the lease as tenant. Alternatively, under set conditions, it can pay a termination fee. That fee gives Google the right to acquire an equity interest in Raylan, the project company. It is not a stake in the listed parent, as we read it.
The limits on the TeraWulf Google backstop
Google cannot choose the termination route in the first six years, unless the installed chip pods can use less than 50% of tenant power. In addition, each backstop only starts when the final data hall under its lease begins. It can end once Anthropic, or a guarantor, holds an investment-grade rating for three months. Moreover, Anthropic must use only Google-approved TPUs on the premises. TeraWulf’s CFO said the Alphabet backing strengthens the financing. Alphabet carries AA+ from S&P and Aa2 from Moody’s.
We have not read the full agreement ourselves, so treat the fee maths as unconfirmed. CoinDesk frames the same terms as a possible Google stake if Anthropic defaults.
Meanwhile, bitcoin trades near $76,002. Our bitcoin price prediction page has the daily ranges.
Miner math: what a miner turning to AI means for an S19 owner
Here is the live maths on November 5. Bitcoin is $76,002 and the network is 1015 EH/s, so hashprice is about $33.95 per petahash per day. That is what one PH/s of hashing earns before power.
| Machine | 5c/kWh | 8c/kWh | 12c/kWh | Break-even |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antminer S19 (95 TH/s, 3250 W) | -$0.67 | -$3.01 | -$6.13 | 4.1c |
| Antminer S19k Pro (115 TH/s, 2645 W) | $0.73 | -$1.17 | -$3.71 | 6.1c |
| Antminer S19 XP (141 TH/s, 3010 W) | $1.17 | -$0.99 | -$3.88 | 6.6c |
| Antminer S21 Pro (234 TH/s, 3510 W) | $3.73 | $1.20 | -$2.17 | 9.4c |
Numbers are profit per day after electricity, at the three power prices shown. Break-even is the most you can pay per kilowatt-hour before the machine loses money. Specs are the manufacturer ratings; network data comes from mempool.space. Try your own power price in our free bitcoin mining profit calculator. See what these machines really sold for in our used ASIC miner price index. Want to run the same numbers on a machine you can buy today? See our used ASIC miners, or buy several at once through bulk lots.
If AI conversions pulled 5% of network hashrate offline over time: the break-even power price on an S19k Pro rises from 6.1 to 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. At 8 cents, daily profit goes from -$1.17 to -$0.97.
The blunt answer for miners
This is a credit story, not a hashrate story. Besides that, it shows why public miners keep chasing AI leases. A backstop from a AA+ company lets them borrow cheaply, and bitcoin hashing at 1015 EH/s cannot offer that. As a result, more sites may leave mining. Fewer rivals help the rest a little. However, we would not count on it. Check the table at your own power price before you buy anything.
If your numbers do not work, our we buy used miners page can help. You can also browse miners in stock.
-Nick
ING Mining
This is general information, not financial advice. Crypto is volatile, and exchanges can fail. Please do your own research.
How this story was made: drafted with the help of AI tools from public sources, then edited by Nick Squires. See our editorial policy. Spot an error? Email ns@ingmining.com.