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Kentucky Data Center Intel
Latest data center news, projects, power and policy across Kentucky — updated daily.
Recent Kentucky data center news
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White House Expands Data Center Ratepayer Pledge as Congress Moves to Codify Protections
The White House expanded its voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge to 187 utilities, electric cooperatives, and data-center developers, while Congress advanced the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act from committee 52-0.
- The White House said the pledge now covers 187 organizations plus 23 governors, and the coalition “protects” 263 million Americans; signatories commit to fund generation and grid upgrades for their data-center loads without shifting costs to other ratepayers.
- The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced H.R. 9340 on July 21; the bill would require state regulators and nonregulated utilities to consider a large-load standard for sites with at least 100 MW peak demand and recover the full incremental cost of grid upgrades. New York’s Executive Order 62 separately put permits for 50 MW+ data centers on hold pending an environmental review.
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AI Is Usually Cast as a Grid Burden. The Genesis Mission Is Betting It’s a Grid Tool.
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced 278 Genesis Mission projects, including multiple AI and grid-operations awards that aim to speed up grid analysis and support flexible load management.
- DOE unveiled 278 projects at the Genesis Mission Summit in Washington, D.C. on July 22 as part of a broader initiative the White House says has more than $5 billion in commitments across 15+ agencies.
- The article highlights projects from Brookhaven National Laboratory, PNNL, University of Utah, EPRI, and others, plus a Siemens Energy-led topology-control project with Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Virginia, and the Orlando Utilities Commission; these are described as Phase I efforts focused on testing AI for grid planning, interconnection studies, and real-time switching recommendations.
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White House Warns PJM to Reform Grid Governance ‘Before It Is Too Late’
The White House has warned PJM Interconnection to overhaul its governance and stakeholder process, while PJM says it is still on the administration’s previously announced timeline.
- The White House spokesperson said PJM has failed to implement the bipartisan Statement of Principles provided in January and urged reforms to stakeholder process, board governance, and implementation “before it is too late.”
- PJM said it has worked with the White House Energy Dominance Council and the 13-state region’s governors, completed its stakeholder process on backstop procurement, and expects the Board to act in very short order.
- FERC is scheduled to hold a technical conference on PJM governance and stakeholder process, with remarks from Peter Lake of the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council.
- The debate is tied to rising power demand from AI data centers, cloud providers, and other large industrial customers, with concerns about interconnection queues, transmission expansion, and capacity costs.
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The AI Infrastructure Split Screen: Capital Rush Meets Community Resistance
Data Center Frontier has published an analysis of the mid-July AI infrastructure market, combining public-market activity, project announcements, financing moves, and local permitting disputes.
- Capital markets: Csquare priced 50 million shares at $21 to raise about $1.05 billion and implied an equity value of roughly $3.2 billion; Switch was linked to a potential $10 billion IPO and near $80 billion valuation including debt; Databricks signed a term sheet for a financing at a $188 billion valuation with the Wall Street Journal reporting about $3 billion in new investment.
- Project and policy developments: Meta said its Hyperion expansion in Louisiana could reach 5 GW and more than $50 billion; Google was tied to a 2.7 GW Project Tembo in Wyoming; New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered an up-to-one-year pause on discretionary environmental permitting for certain hyperscale data centers; Palm Beach County commissioners rejected Project Tango by 5–1 after a roughly 12-hour hearing.
- The article is a broad market commentary and synthesis, not a single original company announcement. It references multiple first-reported deals and filings, while also citing local opposition, power constraints, and community consent as central themes.
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TeraWulf’s $19B Anthropic Lease Puts Its Brownfield AI Strategy to the Test
TeraWulf has announced a 20-year, $19 billion lease with Anthropic for approximately 401 MW of critical IT capacity at its Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky, while also agreeing to sell its 50.1% interest in the 168-MW Abernathy data center joint venture in Texas.
- Anthropic lease: TeraWulf says the agreement is expected to generate about $19 billion in contracted revenue over 20 years; initial capacity is slated for 2H 2027 and the full 401 MW ramp by early 2028.
- Abernathy sale and site details: TeraWulf will sell its 50.1% interest in Abernathy for about $530 million, paid in three installments through April 2027; the Hawesville site includes 250+ buildable acres, multiple high-voltage transmission lines, an energized substation, and direct transmission access.
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High-density Data Center and Colocation Footprints
365 Data Centers has outlined its high-density data center expansion strategy, combining upgrades to existing facilities with a new AI-ready capacity pipeline.
- The company says organic expansion will upgrade facilities it already owns and operates in Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia, and Colorado to support higher-density deployments.
- Through a partnership with Aphorio Carter, 365 Data Centers says it is developing about 200 MW of AI-ready capacity across key U.S. markets over the next 18-24 months, with initial projects in Colorado and Kentucky and other sites under evaluation in Connecticut, Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, and Tennessee.
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TeraWulf seeks $3.5bn in funding for construction of data center for Anthropic
TeraWulf has announced plans to raise around $3.5 billion in debt financing for its data center campus in Kentucky, with the facility expected to be leased by Anthropic.
- Morgan Stanley is expected to lead the financing, and the package will likely also include high-yield bonds.
- The fundraising follows Anthropic’s reported 20-year deal for the Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky, with a total estimated value of $19 billion; TeraWulf also said it sold its 50.1% stake in the Abernathy Joint Venture with Fluidstack and previously secured a $250 million revolving credit line.
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Sphere 3D enters 30MW co-mining agreements with Bitdeer
Sphere 3D has announced new co-mining agreements with Bitdeer Technologies Group for 30MW of capacity across three data center sites in Tennessee and Kentucky.
- Bitdeer will deploy Sealminer A2 Pro Air hardware at Sphere 3D’s sites, with the two companies sharing net mining proceeds under separate agreements.
- Each agreement has an initial one-year term and may be renewed for one additional year; financial terms were not disclosed. Sphere 3D said the move lets it use available power capacity while evaluating AI and HPC opportunities. The company also said it closed its business combination with Cathedra Bitcoin in June 2026, engaged EA Advisors in June, and plans to rename itself DarkHorse Technologies Inc. subject to shareholder approval.
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Anthropic signs $19bn, 20-year lease for Kentucky data center with TeraWulf
TeraWulf has announced a long-term lease with Anthropic for its Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky, and separately said it is selling its 50.1% ownership interest in the Abernathy Joint Venture.
- Anthropic lease: the agreement runs for 20 years and is expected to generate about $19 billion in revenue for TeraWulf; the campus is planned for up to 401MW of IT capacity, with initial capacity in the second half of 2027 and full operations by early 2028.
- Abernathy JV sale: TeraWulf said it is divesting its entire 50.1% ownership in the JV with Fluidstack in Abernathy, Texas; the JV was formed in October 2025 for a 168MW data center on a 120-acre campus, and TeraWulf said the deal helps it realize value from its $450m investment.
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Data center moratorium blocking gigawatt campus challenged in Cave City, Kentucky
The Kentucky Industrial Alliance LLC has filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to lift Cave City’s 12-month moratorium on data centers.
- Lawsuit filed: Kentucky Industrial Alliance LLC filed a complaint on June 8, 2026, against the City of Cave City, the Cave City Council, and the city-county planning commission of Barren County requesting an injunction to lift a 12-month moratorium that Cave City enacted in May; the case is scheduled to be heard in July 2026.
- Project details & background: The developer submitted plans in May for a proposed data center campus on 380 acres at 2001 Doyle Avenue via affiliate Cave City DataCo I LLC; local press reported the proposed “Cave Point Commerce Center” could include ~10 buildings, ~2 million sq ft (185,806 sqm) and up to 1.2GW of capacity; owners are Mike Jones, Jared Whitworth, and Joey Crist.