---
title: "TeraWulf pays up to $12 million a megawatt to build AI campuses its tenants don't fund"
description: "AI leases are 83% of TeraWulf's revenue, but each megawatt of new campus costs $10–12 million to build and the company, not its tenants, pays it. The next lease's rent and the first bond's coupon will decide who keeps the profit."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Data Center"
published: 2026-11-15T20:09:34.761Z
modified: 2026-11-15T20:09:34.761Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/terawulf-pays-up-to-12-million-a-megawatt-to-build-ai-campuses-its-tenants-don-t-fund
language: en
keywords: "TeraWulf, Data Center, Anthropic, Bitcoin Mining, AI Infrastructure"
---

# TeraWulf pays up to $12 million a megawatt to build AI campuses its tenants don't fund

> AI leases are 83% of TeraWulf's revenue, but each megawatt of new campus costs $10–12 million to build and the company, not its tenants, pays it. The next lease's rent and the first bond's coupon will decide who keeps the profit.

[TeraWulf](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/terawulf)'s turn from bitcoin miner into AI landlord is now an income-statement fact: 83% of third-quarter revenue came from AI leases [2][5]. The number that decides whether shareholders keep any of it came from chief operating officer Naz Khan on November 11 [1]. Building the Justified campus in Hawesville, Kentucky now costs $10–12 million per megawatt, up from $8–10 million at Lake Mariner, its New York campus [1][6]. The leases are signed. The open question is who pays for the buildings, and at what cost of debt.

## Tenants bring the chips, TeraWulf carries the shell

[Anthropic](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/anthropic) signed [the anchor lease at Justified](https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/11/04/tmt-newswire/globenewswire/terawulf-secures-google-credit-backstop-for-project-financing-in-support-of-19-billion-anthropic-lease-executes-definitive-fluor-epc-agreement/2461751): 20 years, about 401 megawatts, roughly $19 billion [5][6]. Under TeraWulf's colocation model the tenant supplies its own chips [4]. [Core Scientific](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/core-scientific), the other big bitcoin-to-AI conversion, works out to roughly $9.3 million per megawatt on projects leased to [CoreWeave](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/coreweave), the GPU-cloud company [3]. Its contracts let the customer fund up to $1.5 million per megawatt of facility cost and recover it through hosting credits, the backlog accounting we [counted in megawatts on November 13](https://theinference.org/article/core-scientific-s-10-q-counts-its-backlog-in-megawatts-not-24-billion) [3]. TeraWulf's tenants bring only chips; the shell, and the debt behind it, are TeraWulf's [4].

*Chart: **Justified costs up to $12 million a megawatt, above Lake Mariner's $8–10 million** Column chart of build cost per megawatt at TeraWulf's Lake Mariner campus, at Core Scientific's CoreWeave-leased projects and at TeraWulf's Justified campus, showing Justified highest at $10–12 million, Lake Mariner at $8–10 million and Core Scientific at about $9.3 million*

*Build cost per megawatt of campus, US$ millions. Ranges are the low and high ends TeraWulf and Coinpaper give; Core Scientific is a single estimate across its CoreWeave-leased projects. Bars sit at the midpoint where a range is given. [1][3][6]*

## What is signed is funded, the next 250 to 500 megawatts are not

Of 839 contracted megawatts, 102 were billing at quarter-end, and third-quarter adjusted EBITDA was negative $12.8 million [2]. Management says it can fund the remaining Lake Mariner commitments, the Justified equity and [interim letters of credit](https://theinference.org/article/terawulf-lifts-its-morgan-stanley-revolver-60-to-400-million-and-deletes-the-letter-of-credit-cap) "all without accessing the equity capital markets" [2]. That covers what is signed. Contracting 250–500 new megawatts a year, which needs $5–6 billion of cash at the top end against $2.4 billion on hand, is not [1][2].

*Chart: **TeraWulf's construction spend now towers over its revenue** Line chart of TeraWulf quarterly capital expenditure and revenue, Q4 2024 to Q3 2026, showing capex far above revenue in every quarter*

*Quarterly capital expenditure and revenue, US$ millions, from TeraWulf's SEC filings. [8]*

## The rent is fixed for 20 years, the bill is not

The Anthropic lease pays roughly $2.4 million per megawatt a year [4], the rent line we [took apart on November 9](https://theinference.org/article/terawulf-s-63-million-ai-lease-line-contains-46-million-of-rent). Against Justified's $10–12 million per megawatt to build, a fifth to a quarter of the bill comes back each year, and the rate is fixed for two decades [1][4].

Neoclouds such as [Nebius](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nebius), which own the chips and sell the compute, sign long-term deals at $20–25 million per megawatt, rates that bundle the GPUs' revenue, money TeraWulf's rent never touches [4]. With rent locked, construction inflation lands on TeraWulf alone. Khan's answer to tenants asking a single-digit yield on cost: "go talk to someone else" [1].

## Two prices will re-rate the stock

[Morgan Stanley's November 12 model](https://blockspace.media/insight/terawulf-price-target-cut-47-2/) already charges for the gap: the discount rate on unstabilized signed sites lifted to 9% from 7%, modeled debt coupons of 8.5–12.5%, and a target cut to $47 from $65 with the Overweight rating kept [2]. [Google's credit backstop, signed November 4](https://cryptobriefing.com/google-backs-anthropic-terawulf-lease/), is there to pull that coupon down; the coupon, the proceeds and the covenants remain open [2][6][7].

TeraWulf is timing its financing push for after Anthropic's IPO [1]. Two numbers in that window will re-rate the stock: the rent on the next lease, and the coupon on the first bond.

## Takeaway

TeraWulf's AI leases pay about $2.4 million per megawatt a year against $10–12 million to build each one, so the coupon on its first project bond decides whether the conversion earns shareholders anything.

## Sources

1. [Blockspace Media, "TeraWulf COO: 83% of Revenue Now Comes From AI as Lake Mariner Nears Completion," November 2026](https://blockspace.media/short/terawulf-coo-83-of-revenue-now-comes-from-ai-as-lake-mariner-nears-completion/)
2. [Blockspace Media, "Morgan Stanley cuts TeraWulf target to $47 on higher discount rates, keeps Overweight," 12 November 2026](https://blockspace.media/insight/terawulf-price-target-cut-47-2/)
3. [Coinpaper, "Can You Actually Turn a Bitcoin Mine Into an AI Data Center? Here's What It Costs," 15 November 2026](https://coinpaper.com/38845/can-you-actually-turn-a-bitcoin-mine-into-an-ai-data-center-here-s-what-it-costs)
4. [The Globe and Mail (Motley Fool syndicated), "Neoclouds Like Nebius Are Much Better Investments Than Colocation Companies Like TeraWulf. Here's Why.," 11 November 2026](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/stocks/NBIS-Q/pressreleases/8773737/neoclouds-like-nebius-are-much-better-investments-than-colocation-companies-like-terawulf-here-s-why/)
5. [TeraWulf press release via Markets Insider (GlobeNewswire), "TeraWulf Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results," 6 November 2026](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/terawulf-reports-third-quarter-2026-results-1036729404)
6. [TeraWulf press release via The Manila Times (GlobeNewswire), "TeraWulf Secures Google Credit Backstop for Project Financing in Support of $19 Billion Anthropic Lease; Executes Definitive Fluor EPC Agreement," 4 November 2026](https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/11/04/tmt-newswire/globenewswire/terawulf-secures-google-credit-backstop-for-project-financing-in-support-of-19-billion-anthropic-lease-executes-definitive-fluor-epc-agreement/2461751)
7. [Crypto Briefing, "Google backs TeraWulf's $19 billion Anthropic lease with credit support," 4 November 2026](https://cryptobriefing.com/google-backs-anthropic-terawulf-lease/)
8. [TeraWulf quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 15 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001083301)


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TeraWulf pays up to $12 million a megawatt to build AI campuses its tenants don't fund — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/terawulf-pays-up-to-12-million-a-megawatt-to-build-ai-campuses-its-tenants-don-t-fund