AI startup that’s never turned a profit say's it'll totally be around in 2047 to close its $19B lease

AI + ML

Model dev and AGI fearmonger Anthropic signs 20-year lease with TeraWulf

In its short life, Anthropic has captured hearts, minds, and wallets – and spooked the US government – but it hasn’t actually turned a profit. That’s not stopping CEO Dario Amodei from signing a two-decade lease with crypto-mining outfit turned AI datacenter operator TeraWulf.

Anthropic believes it’s not only going to survive any AI bubble burst but keep operating until 2047, or at least that’s what it (probably) wants prospective investors in its upcoming initial public offering.

What will Anthropic end up paying for lights, power, and shelter from the elements provided by TeraWulf’s Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky? If everything goes to plan, the deal will be worth a whopping $19 billion in contracted revenues over the next two decades.

“Expected” is the key word here because the 401-megawatt facility isn’t working yet. TeraWulf expects to commence limited operations in the second half of 2027, before completing the facility sometime the following year.

Datacenters aren’t cheap to build or run. Approximately half the cost of bringing up the datacenter is attributed to the power, shell, and thermal management systems with the rest being compute and networking. So, on top of the $19 billion Anthropic is burning on the new digs, the AI upstart still needs to fill the facility with compute — and that means raising capital.

According to an SEC filing published Monday, “Anthropic’s payment obligations under the Justified Data Campus Lease are expected to be supported by an investment-grade credit.” That is to say, Anthropic’s ability to make rent will depend on its ability to continue raising capital.

The model developer won’t have to wait too much longer for its next opportunity to get its hands on some cash. Early last month, Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO. While details remain thin, the company is widely expected to make its debut on Wall Street this northern autumn/fall.

It’s shaping up to be a big year for AI IPOs after SpaceX (which now owns xAI) made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. Mere retail investors haven't fared so well, as after the price of SpaceX scrip hit the stratosphere in the days after its IPO, it's settled to now trade at about six percent above launch day prices.

TeraWulf is also jumping through hoops to finance the deal. Alongside bagging Amodei and crew as customers, the company announced it was selling its 50.1 percent stake in the Abernathy Joint Venture to an investment group led by FluidStack.

That joint venture was established last year to develop a 168-megawatt datacenter in Abernathy, Texas. TeraWulf is now pulling its $450 million out of the project so it can use that capital to finance additional datacenter builds. 

While that cash injection should help to bring its Justified Data campus online, TeraWulf could still find itself in a precarious position should the bubble burst and Anthropic's ability to secure the new capital necessary to make rent evaporate. With that said, it wouldn’t be the only one facing this stark reality, and its exposure is relatively small compared to the $300 billion Oracle has committed to AI builds.

Last week Big Red shared a laundry list of risk factors that could send its business spiraling and chief among them was its unbridled enthusiasm for all things AI. ®