Terawulf shares climbed 11.1% during morning trading, erasing losses from a two-session pullback that followed news of a transformative long-term lease. The company signed a 20-year agreement with AI firm Anthropic to occupy roughly 401 megawatts of critical IT capacity at Terawulf’s Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky, a deal the company says will produce approximately $19 billion in contracted revenue over the lease’s initial term. The contract includes two five-year renewal options, and Terawulf plans phased delivery of capacity beginning in late 2027 with a target of full ramp-up in early 2028.
The stock’s rebound came amid a clear wave of analyst updates linked directly to the Anthropic arrangement. Morgan Stanley lifted its price target to $72 from $66.50 while keeping an Overweight rating. Needham increased its target to $33 from $28 and retains a Buy recommendation. Compass Point raised its target to $40 from $28 and maintained a Buy stance. Bernstein reiterated an Outperform rating with a $36 target, and Rosenblatt moved its target to $30 from $27 while keeping a Buy rating. Bank of America Securities initiated coverage with a Buy rating and set a $34 target, citing Terawulf’s strategic pivot away from bitcoin mining toward digital infrastructure aimed at AI demand.
Alongside the Anthropic lease, Terawulf disclosed an agreement to sell its 50.1% interest in the Abernathy joint venture to an investor group led by Fluidstack for roughly $530 million, with proceeds payable in three installments. Analysts have pointed to that asset sale as providing tangible capital to support Terawulf’s wholly owned AI infrastructure pipeline, a factor they view as a distinctive advantage for the company.
CEO Paul Prager framed the Anthropic lease as the opening move in a much larger market opportunity, stating that "every enterprise on this planet at some point is gonna want to access HPC and AI." Market participants have interpreted the comment as signaling long-term demand potential for high-performance computing and AI-focused data center capacity, though the quote was presented by management as a view on demand rather than a quantified forecast.
The broader market offered little help on the trading day. The S&P 500 was down about 0.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined roughly 1.0%, and the Nasdaq slipped 0.3%, meaning Terawulf’s double-digit gain was driven by company-specific developments rather than a broader market upswing. Sector peers in digital infrastructure and bitcoin mining have shown volatility in recent sessions as investors digest what Terawulf’s Anthropic deal could imply for competitive dynamics in the AI data center buildout.
Collectively, the long-term revenue contract, the capital-accretive sale of the Abernathy stake, and a string of bullish analyst revisions appeared sufficient to counteract the modest macro drag and the near-term execution concerns that had sparked profit-taking over the prior two days. Those factors pushed the share price toward the upper end of its recent trading range, with the stock reaching an intraday high of $22.90.
Market context and implications
- Company positioning - The Anthropic lease represents a material, contracted revenue stream and a strategic shift toward providing AI-focused data center capacity.
- Capital structure - The Abernathy stake sale provides staged cash inflows that analysts view as funding for Terawulf’s owned AI infrastructure projects.
- Analyst response - Multiple firms revised price targets upward or initiated coverage with positive ratings following the announcements, indicating increased sell-side conviction tied to the transactions.