TeraWulf Hawesville AI Campus: Fiber and RFP Watch

Nov 11

TeraWulf has hired Fluor to build the three data-center buildings at its Justified Data Campus in Hawesville, Kentucky. The campus sits on the former Century Aluminum smelter site along the Ohio River, about 70 miles southwest of Louisville. Construction is already underway. Anthropic has a 20-year lease for about 401 MW of critical IT load across all three buildings, with the first capacity due in late 2027 and the rest scheduled through the second quarter of 2028.

For telecom carriers, fiber optic providers and broadband sales teams that work western Kentucky and the Ohio River corridor, this is a live construction and interconnect story—not a rumor on a site map.

What TeraWulf and Fluor announced on Nov. 4

According to Fluor’s Nov. 4, 2026 release and TeraWulf’s same-day announcement (Exhibit 99.1 to its Form 8-K):

Contract: Fluor Enterprises, Inc. signed a definitive engineering, procurement and construction agreement with TeraWulf for three data-center buildings at Justified. The agreement is on a guaranteed-maximum-price basis; TeraWulf says that pricing is being established as engineering and procurement progress. Fluor says it expects to recognize the award in the fourth quarter once pricing for the first two buildings is finalized. The contract value was not disclosed. Under the structure Fluor described, it is responsible for cost overruns up to a percentage of its profit.
Scope: Fluor moves from early engineering and pre-construction to engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning, with defined delivery milestones and open-book cost reporting.
Earlier work: Fluor has been on the project since a limited notice to proceed announced March 16, 2026, covering master planning and pre-construction. It is leading the work from its North American Data Center Execution Hub in Greenville, South Carolina.
Schedule: Fluor said early works construction has already begun. TeraWulf’s milestone schedule calls for phased ready-for-service completions beginning in late 2027 and continuing through the second quarter of 2028.
Financing support: the same day, TeraWulf announced credit-support agreements with Google LLC in connection with debt financing for the Anthropic lease. TeraWulf’s Nov. 4 Form 8-K describes a backstop tied to each of the three leased buildings, labeled CB-1, CB-2 and CB-3.

The site: a former smelter on the Ohio River

On February 2, 2026, Century Aluminum of Kentucky General Partnership completed the sale of the Hawesville facility to Justified DataPower LLC, a TeraWulf affiliate. Century’s Form 8-K describes the property as approximately 750 acres at 1627 State Route 3543, Hawesville, KY 42348. Consideration was $200 million in cash plus a 6.8% non-dilutive minority equity interest in Raylan Data Holdings LLC, the affiliate intended to develop and own the data center. Century will not participate in financing, construction, management or operation, and it has a right to require a purchase of that minority interest starting on the first anniversary of operations.

TeraWulf’s Feb. 2 release is consistent on the infrastructure that came with the site: more than 250 buildable acres, multiple high-voltage transmission lines, an on-site energized substation, a direct connection to the regional transmission network, and about 480 MW of existing power availability, with potential to expand over time. TeraWulf also said the site is “strategically located within 300 miles of several major Midwest metropolitan areas” and “offers low-latency connectivity.”

Two acreage figures appear in official materials and should not be collapsed into one. The Century sale filing says approximately 750 acres. The project’s own Justified Data Campus overview describes a 790-acre legacy industrial site. Engineering News-Record has reported the smelter operated from 1969 until 2022 and sits about 70 miles southwest of Louisville. Local and company materials say the closure eliminated more than 600 jobs.

The campus site and later company remarks say cooling will be a closed-loop system that does not draw river water. In a September presentation reported by the Owensboro Times, TeraWulf’s Pace Ralli said the three buildings would use less than 5,000 gallons of potable water a day and would not use municipal water for cooling. Those are company statements, not independent measurements.

Power: Big Rivers, Kenergy and a 482 MW agreement

The campus is not a TVA load. Retail electric service is through Kenergy Corp., a distribution cooperative; Big Rivers Electric Corp. is the generation-and-transmission cooperative behind that service. The site sits in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) market.

On March 20, 2026, Big Rivers, Kenergy and TeraWulf entered an Agreement for Electric Service. The Kentucky Public Service Commission approved a 15-year Retail Electric Service Agreement for up to 482 MW on August 21, 2026, in Case No. 2026-00115. In its Aug. 24 release, TeraWulf quoted the Commission’s finding that the agreement “contains adequate protections for existing customers, appropriately allocates financial and operational risks, establishes rates that are fair, just and reasonable, and provides for adequate and reliable service.” Under the approved structure, TeraWulf is responsible for the market, transmission, delivery and customer-specific infrastructure costs attributable to its load, plus substantial credit-support obligations.

The Commission found that about 482 MW of transmission capability remains available at the former smelter, where the delivery point is connected to five 161-kV Big Rivers circuits. ENR, reporting on that record, says TeraWulf also agreed to reimburse Big Rivers for substation modifications, with a net obligation of about $11.2 million after a $600,000 credit for electrical equipment. The 482 MW utility agreement is the interconnection and delivery envelope; it is not the same figure as Anthropic’s 401 MW of leased critical IT load.

Anthropic’s 20-year lease, and the investment figures

On July 6, 2026, TeraWulf’s subsidiary Raylan Data LLC entered a 20-year lease with Anthropic, PBC for approximately 401 MW of critical IT load at Justified. TeraWulf’s July 6 release said the lease is expected to generate about $19 billion of contracted revenue over the initial term and to be supported by an investment-grade credit. The July 6 Form 8-K adds that rent starts when each leased premises is delivered, and that Anthropic has two successive five-year renewal options (up to 10 additional years). The November 8-K identifies those premises as CB-1, CB-2 and CB-3—the same three buildings now under the Fluor contract.

Delivery timing tightened in later company materials. The July announcement said initial capacity in the second half of 2027 and the full 401 MW by early 2028. The November Fluor and TeraWulf releases schedule phased ready-for-service dates from late 2027 through the second quarter of 2028. At the Hancock County Fiscal Court on Oct. 26, Ralli gave a more specific local timetable, as reported by the Hancock Clarion: the first building planned online in October 2027, the campus “fully, 100% operational by April 2028,” and steel erection for the first building starting in November 2026. Treat the official November schedule as the company-wide commitment, and the October/April dates as the local detail TeraWulf gave the court.

The campus investment figure has also moved, and it should be quoted carefully. Earlier this year, in materials filed in the PSC case, TeraWulf estimated $3.5 billion to $4.0 billion to build the data-center buildings and permanent site infrastructure for a then-planned 370 MW critical-IT design (two halls). That estimate excluded tenant compute equipment, which TeraWulf said would be about another $10 billion funded by Anthropic. After the 401 MW, three-building lease, TeraWulf’s August PSC-approval release revised its own estimate to approximately $4.0 billion to $4.5 billion for site development and the initial data halls, based on about $10 million to $12 million per MW of critical IT load, still exclusive of customer compute. Ralli repeated the $4.0–$4.5 billion range in September. The November Fluor and TeraWulf releases do not restate a campus dollar total, and Fluor’s contract value remains undisclosed. Do not treat “$3.5 billion” as the current company estimate.

Construction, jobs and Hancock County

The Oct. 26 Fiscal Court update is the most detailed public construction report so far. According to the Hancock Clarion’s account of Ralli’s remarks, demolition of the former smelter was about 15% complete after roughly six months, with 105,000 tons of industrial waste already hauled out (about 4,900 truckloads) and 1,500 of 4,500 planned foundation pilings in the ground. About 250 skilled craft workers were on site, with plans for about 500 by year-end and about 2,000 by April or May. TeraWulf planned to keep some existing structures for now, including a warehouse and a glass administrative building, and Ralli said he wanted to find a continued use for the river terminal.

Job counts have been revised upward as the project has grown, and the public figures are still company estimates. Early 2026 comments pointed to on the order of 100 permanent TeraWulf roles. In a September chamber presentation, Ralli estimated about 300 high-paying on-site jobs once operational—about 150 TeraWulf and nearly 150 Anthropic—and at least 1,000 construction jobs at peak, with the possibility of more. At the October Fiscal Court meeting he said there would be at least 300 permanent jobs, that TeraWulf would need 100–150 people to maintain building operations, and that he anticipated Anthropic would need at least 300 employees. Those October figures should be read as reported remarks, not added into a new total. TeraWulf has also said it is working with Owensboro Community & Technical College on data-center operator training, including discussions under the KYCTCS-TRAINS program.

On taxes, the September presentation is a company projection, not an assessed roll: TeraWulf estimated more than $1.5 billion in state and local tax revenue over the first 20 years, including $536.8 million for Hancock County taxing districts—$158.8 million for county government, $322.3 million for the school district, $13.7 million for the health department and $42.1 million for the library—assuming the project is completed and operates as planned. This post did not find a confirmed local tax abatement for the campus. Kentucky has a statewide qualified data-center sales-and-use tax exemption; this draft does not treat that exemption as approved for Justified unless a later filing says so.

What telecom and fiber teams should watch

A 401 MW AI campus does not show up only in the power docket. It also changes the demand picture for fiber optic and broadband infrastructure in a rural Ohio River county.

Backhaul and middle-mile in the Hawesville corridor. Hyperscale or AI campuses typically need diverse, high-capacity routes to carrier hotels, internet exchanges and long-haul paths out of the region. TeraWulf’s own language points to low-latency access to Midwest metros, and the project website says the campus will “extend high-speed broadband infrastructure to and through the site,” with benefits for surrounding communities and businesses. Neither TeraWulf nor Fluor has published carrier names, route maps, fiber counts or meet-me points. Providers with lit or dark fiber along the Ohio River, through Hancock County, or on paths toward Owensboro, Evansville and Louisville should map proximity to 1627 State Route 3543 before treating the site as out of market.

Construction RFQs and adjacent public demand. Work is already in the field—demolition, foundations and, as of November, planned steel for the first building. Multi-building builds of this size often generate RFQs for OSP fiber, conduit, splice work and temporary construction connectivity, then later for permanent diverse laterals and campus interconnect. Nearby schools, libraries and clinics may also drive E-Rate, RHC, state broadband or municipal RFP notices. GIS mapping of fiber against the site remains the practical screen before a bid.

Watch the documents, not the headline numbers. Fluor’s contract value is undisclosed. The campus dollar figure has already moved from a $3.5–$4.0 billion, two-hall plan to a $4.0–$4.5 billion, three-building estimate, exclusive of roughly $10 billion in tenant compute. Delivery dates differ slightly by source (early 2028 in the July lease announcement; Q2 2028 in the November EPC materials; October 2027 and April 2028 in the local Fiscal Court update). Price circuits and crews on firm RFQs and filed agreements, not on a single investment headline.

How to watch the corridor with Map4

Pin the Hawesville / Hancock County / Ohio River corridor on the Map4 National Map, score nearby fiber providers by nearest route or coverage, and overlay open telecom RFPs—including E-Rate, state, federal and organic—so your team sees opportunities in proximity to the site as they appear.

Key dates

Feb. 2, 2026: Justified DataPower closes on the Hawesville site — Century Form 8-K
March 16, 2026: Fluor limited notice to proceed — Fluor release
March 20, 2026: Big Rivers / Kenergy electric-service agreement signed — PSC case record
July 6, 2026: Anthropic 20-year lease for ~401 MW — TeraWulf release and Form 8-K
Aug. 21, 2026: Kentucky PSC approves 15-year, 482 MW RESA, Case No. 2026-00115 — TeraWulf release
Oct. 26, 2026: Fiscal Court construction update; first-building steel planned in November — Hancock Clarion
Nov. 4, 2026: definitive Fluor EPC for three buildings; Google credit support announced — Fluor and TeraWulf releases
Late 2027 / reported October 2027: first building ready for service — TeraWulf November schedule; local October date from Fiscal Court remarks
Q2 2028 / reported April 2028: remaining phased completions / full operations — TeraWulf November schedule; local April date from Fiscal Court remarks

Sources

Questions: support@map4.net · Chris Nunez, chris.nunez@map4.net

TeraWulfFluorAnthropicJustified Data CampusHawesvilleHancock CountyKentuckyData CenterAIFiber OpticBroadbandTelecomRFPRFQGIS MappingProximityBig RiversKenergyMap4 National Map

Chris Nunez