Google has become the largest shareholder of Bitcoin miner and AI infrastructure provider TeraWulf, now holding a 14% stake after expanding its role in a major lease deal with Fluidstack.
On a shareholder call Thursday, TeraWulf announced a 10-year colocation lease agreement with Fluidstack, backed by Google through a financial guarantee, or backstop. In exchange for increasing this backstop, Google received additional warrants to purchase TeraWulf shares.
TeraWulf’s chief strategy officer, Kerri Langlais, told Cointelegraph that Google’s backstop has grown to $3.2 billion, granting it warrants for over 73 million shares — equivalent to a 14% stake in the company.
Langlais noted that Google’s expanded equity position cements it as TeraWulf’s largest shareholder, calling it “a powerful endorsement from one of the world’s leading technology companies” and underscoring both “the strength of our zero-carbon infrastructure and the vast opportunity before us.”
Google’s backstop secures the agreement
TeraWulf announced Monday that Fluidstack has exercised an option to expand at its Lake Mariner data center campus in New York, with a new purpose-built facility scheduled to begin operations in the second half of 2026.
Langlais explained to Cointelegraph that Google’s $3.2 billion financial backstop underpins Fluidstack’s long-term lease commitments at Lake Mariner, ensuring the obligations are met if Fluidstack cannot fulfill them.
“This is not a guarantee of TeraWulf’s corporate debt, nor do we have direct access to those funds,” she clarified.
“The backstop is tied exclusively to contracted AI and high-powered computing lease revenues and is unrelated to our Bitcoin mining operations.”
TeraWulf aims to sustain its Bitcoin mining operations
With April 2024’s halving reducing block rewards to 3.125 Bitcoin and pressuring profitability, many miners have begun diversifying by redirecting energy capacity to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) hosting services.
Langlais said TeraWulf intends to sustain—but not grow—its Bitcoin mining operations at Lake Mariner, while prioritizing “execution: building, hosting, and delivering for our partners and shareholders.”
“In the near term, mining generates cash flow and provides a valuable resource to the electrical grid, as its flexible load can be rapidly adjusted to support stability and reliability.”
Looking ahead, the company believes there is “greater value in transitioning those megawatts” toward AI and HPC workloads, where long-term contracted revenues with blue-chip partners like Fluidstack and Google “will fuel growth and value creation.”
An August 2024 report from asset manager VanEck projected that if publicly traded Bitcoin miners shifted 20% of their energy capacity to AI and HPC by 2027, they could generate an additional $13.9 billion in annual profits over 13 years.
TeraWulf expects its deal with Fluidstack alone to bring in $6.7 billion in revenue, with the potential to reach $16 billion through lease extensions.
TeraWulf shares climb
On Monday, TeraWulf’s stock (WULF) surged to $10.57 during trading, up 17% from the prior close of $8.97. By the session’s end, however, shares had pulled back to $9.38 and slipped another 1.28% in after-hours trading.
Since unveiling its agreement with Fluidstack on Thursday, TeraWulf’s stock has soared over 72% in the past five days.
