Anthropic Secures $19 Billion Kentucky Data Center Lease in Former Aluminum Smelter repower

A Landmark Industrial Transformation in Kentucky

In a massive expansion of American artificial intelligence infrastructure, California-based AI safety lab Anthropic has signed a 20-year lease to occupy a developing data center in Hancock County, Kentucky. The deal, announced on July 6, 2026, by project developer TeraWulf, is projected to bring in approximately $19 billion in contracted lease revenue over its initial term. The facility, named the Justified Data campus, is being built on the site of a former Century Aluminum Company smelter in Hawesville, a rural town located along the Ohio River about an hour southwest of Louisville. TeraWulf, a former cryptocurrency mining company that successfully pivoted to building AI data center infrastructure, acquired the industrial property in February 2026 for $200 million. This pivot has fueled a massive surge for the company, with its stock rising more than 80 percent this year. According to TeraWulf Chief Executive Officer Paul Prager, securing a tenant of Anthropic's scale validates the company's strategy of repurposing legacy industrial sites that already possess robust power grid connections. Beyond this location, TeraWulf has also acquired a second site in Kentucky slated for a separate gigawatt-scale campus.

Massive Local Investment and Financial Restructuring

The multi-billion-dollar scale of the development will reshape Hancock County, a rural community with a population of only 9,000 residents. TeraWulf is investing $4 billion to develop the physical infrastructure of the Justified Data campus, while Anthropic, which recently reached a valuation of nearly $1 trillion, is expected to inject an additional $10 billion or more into the site. Local officials anticipate substantial public benefits, including an estimated $14.5 million in annual state sales tax and $7 million in yearly school tax contributions, translating to over $4,000 for every student in the Hancock County School District. To fund its wholly owned AI infrastructure portfolio, TeraWulf also announced a major financial restructuring. The company is divesting its 50.1 percent stake in the Abernathy Joint Venture in Texas to an investor group led by Fluidstack. This sale monetizes TeraWulf's initial $450 million investment in the 168-megawatt Texas project, which was established in 2025, at a premium to unlock capital for its Kentucky developments.

Powering Frontier AI While Shielding Local Ratepayers

The Justified Data campus is designed to accommodate up to 401 megawatts of critical IT load, a capacity equivalent to the power consumed by more than 300,000 homes. Development will proceed in phases, with initial power delivery scheduled for the second half of 2027 and full capacity online by early 2028. This massive energy requirement highlights a broader challenge for the AI sector, which Anthropic estimates will need at least 50 gigawatts of capacity over the coming years to train next-generation frontier models. Recognizing the strain that gigawatt-scale facilities place on local grids, Anthropic established a policy in February 2026 promising to shield public utility ratepayers from price increases. Under this commitment, the company will cover 100 percent of the grid upgrade costs required to connect its data centers, utilizing curtailment systems to lower energy usage during peak demand hours, and employing water-efficient cooling technologies to minimize environmental impacts. While this massive injection of capital promises unprecedented school funding for rural Hancock County, the true test of Anthropic's ratepayer protection pledge will come when the local grid must suddenly absorb enough power to run hundreds of thousands of homes.