Key Takeaways
- Google will receive warrants to acquire 32.5 million shares in TeraWulf.
- The deal will see Google guarantee lease payments for TeraWulf’s data center expansion.
- Several bitcoin miners have pivoted to AI infrastructure to diversify their revenue streams.
In a data center financing deal that could see Google become TeraWulf’s largest shareholder, the web search giant will receive warrants to acquire 32.5 million shares in the Bitcoin mining company.
The deal reflects a growing alignment between Bitcoin miners and cloud providers like Google as they invest in new AI infrastructure.
Google Funds Data Center Expansion
On Aug. 14, 2025, TeraWulf signed two 10-year colocation agreements with Fluidstack, an AI cloud platform, to provide over 200 megawatts (MW) of high-performance computing (HPC) capacity at its Lake Mariner data center campus in Western New York.
As part of this deal, Google agreed to backstop $1.8 billion of Fluidstack’s lease obligations. In return, it received warrants for roughly an 8% equity stake in TeraWulf.
Just a few days after the initial announcement, Fluidstack exercised an option to expand at the Lake Mariner campus, adding a new 160 MW data center building.
In response, Google increased its backstop to $3.2 billion and its pro forma equity stake in TeraWulf to approximately 14%.
The Convergence of Bitcoin Mining and AI Infrastructure
When TeraWulf first started developing the Lake Mariner campus in 2022, the company was exclusively known as a Bitcoin miner.
However, starting in 2024, it has pivoted to a dual-business model and expanded into HPC hosting.
Both operations require vast energy resources and efficient cooling systems, creating key synergies between bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure.
Terawulf’s strategy is now to maintain its existing Bitcoin mining operation as a source of cash flow while aggressively expanding its more profitable and stable HPC hosting business.
The shift from Bitcoin mining to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) is a major trend in the digital infrastructure space.
Other companies that have made a similar pivot include Hut 8, Riot Platforms, and Iris Energy.
At least one firm is on a path toward abandoning mining entirely.
Core Scientific, once one of the largest Bitcoin miners in the U.S., is in the process of being acquired by AI cloud firm CoreWeave for approximately $9 billion.
CoreWeave itself was a former Ethereum mining company that successfully pivoted to AI cloud services years ago.
The proposed acquisition will allow CoreWeave to secure Core Scientific’s extensive power capacity and data center infrastructure to meet its own soaring AI workloads.
James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
