Shares of TeraWulf (NASDAQ:WULF) are down 8% to $20.41 in Tuesday’s midday session, reversing yesterday’s rally on the Anthropic mega-deal. The drop lands in a broad AI-infrastructure pullback, with the NASDAQ 100 down 1.5% intraday.
The move gives back most of the July 6 pop but leaves TeraWulf stock still up 78% year to date (YTD). Peer names are trading in sympathy: IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) is down 7% to $40.97, Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) is off 6% to $31.56, and Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) is down 4% to $20.85.
Analyst Target Hikes Meet Sell-the-News
The irony of today’s action is that multiple Wall Street desks raised targets on TeraWulf even as the stock fell. Rosenblatt lifted its target to $30 from $27 (Buy), Needham moved to $33 from $28 (Buy), KBW held Outperform at $33, and Bernstein reiterated Outperform at $36. The consensus analyst target price sits at $36.
The catalyst was TeraWulf’s 20-year, $19 billion Anthropic data-center lease covering 401 megawatts net at the Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky, with two five-year renewal options and phased delivery starting in the second half of 2027, reaching full capacity by early 2028. The deal pushes TeraWulf’s total AI orderbook to $27 billion across three clients (Anthropic, Core42, and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL | GOOGL Price Prediction)-backed Fluidstack).
So, why the selloff? KBW flagged that the investment-grade credit support for the lease isn’t yet finalized (it hinges on Anthropic’s choice of hardware vendor, expected within about four months), alongside the Abernathy stake sale and a perceived lack of near-term catalysts. TeraWulf also agreed to sell its 50.1% stake in the Abernathy joint venture to a Fluidstack-led group for $530 million in staged installments. Those overhangs, combined with a risk-off tape, gave traders reason to fade the rally.
AI-Miner Selloff Driven by Equity Risk-Off
Today’s pain is an equity risk-off move. Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) is essentially flat over the past 24 hours, up less than 1% to $63,845. The pressure is equity-driven, hitting the same AI-tech complex that dragged on chips, memory, and space names.
IREN, Applied Digital, and Cipher Mining are all Bitcoin miners pivoting into AI infrastructure, and each has its own hyperscaler contract book. IREN carries an $81 analyst target price, while Applied Digital shares still sit up 29% YTD and Cipher Mining shares are up 42% YTD. These are volatile, largely pre-profit names, and one session doesn’t rewrite the long-term thesis around hyperscaler capex and power-constrained compute.
For investors weighing the group, the bull case rests on the analyst target hikes, TeraWulf’s $19 billion Anthropic lease, and the broader validation of the miner-to-AI pivot. The bear case is the unfinalized credit support, execution risk into 2028, and betas well above the market. Modest position sizing fits the volatility profile here.
What to Watch
Traders can watch for whether WULF stock holds above $20 into the close, and whether IREN, APLD, and CIFR follow. The next concrete catalyst may be Anthropic’s hardware-vendor decision, which could unlock the investment-grade credit wrap on the lease.
Beyond the WULF-specific setup, the price action in IREN, APLD, and CIFR will tell investors whether today is a coordinated group pullback or a name-specific reaction to TeraWulf’s contract terms. Watch relative volume in the peers and any follow-on analyst notes on IREN, Applied Digital, and/or Cipher Mining.
Longer term, the miner-to-AI pivot thesis hinges on whether these operators can convert contracted megawatts into investment-grade cash flows. With hyperscaler capex running near $700 billion annually and power the binding constraint, the group retains structural tailwinds. Still, sessions like today are a reminder that execution risk and financing overhangs still matter alongside the headline contract wins.
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