CleanSpark has signed a 20-year artificial intelligence infrastructure lease that anchors 175 megawatts of critical IT load at its Sandersville, Georgia, campus, but the Bitcoin miner and data center developer still must secure an estimated $1.75 billion to $2.10 billion to build the project. The company entered the triple-net agreement on July 10 and disclosed it in a Form 8-K on July 14, estimating $6.6 billion in contract value over the initial term and approximately $330 million in average annual net operating income. The identity of the tenant—described only as a high-investment-grade global technology company—remains undisclosed.

Terms and scale of the lease

The Sandersville deal is a binding infrastructure lease covering 175 MW with annual escalators, a 20-year initial term, and two optional five-year extensions. CleanSpark places the initial term at $6.6 billion in value and says the figure could reach up to $11.6 billion if the tenant exercises both extension options. The signed commitment today is for the initial term; any increase to $11.6 billion depends on those future tenant decisions.

Labeling the agreement “triple-net” does not, by itself, answer who funds every component of construction. CleanSpark’s 8-K notes that the tenant bears the costs, charges, indemnities, and expenses specified in the lease, while the company separately estimates landlord project costs at $10 million to $12 million per megawatt. Applied to 175 MW, that yields a derived build range of $1.75 billion to $2.10 billion that CleanSpark will still need to finance.

The timeline is phased. CleanSpark expects initial deliveries to begin in the fourth quarter of 2027, but the company has not disclosed the pace at which the full 175 MW would come online, nor when rent commences for each phase. As a result, treating the company’s approximately $330 million average annual NOI estimate as an immediate run-rate from the first day of Q4 2027 would misstate the disclosed timing.

AI integration

The Sandersville lease positions a Bitcoin miner as a landlord for AI infrastructure, reflecting the growing overlap between digital asset firms and data center development for high-intensity computing. The contracted critical IT load is designed to support AI-scale compute requirements, with the lease structure intended to supply predictable, long-duration cash flows linked to data center capacity rather than Bitcoin mining output. In this model, the tenant’s credit quality—and the mechanics of the lease—become core to financing, while the miner’s own Bitcoin treasury plays a secondary role as potential collateral or liquidity source.

CleanSpark characterizes the tenant’s credit as high investment grade and says that profile facilitates financing options. A long-dated, contracted revenue stream often serves as an underwriting anchor in project finance, allowing lenders to model cash flow against construction draws and completion milestones. Yet the eventual risk allocation depends on terms that remain undisclosed, including any corporate guarantees, recourse provisions, collateral, and sponsor equity requirements.

Funding needs and balance sheet context

The estimated $1.75 billion to $2.10 billion build dwarfs CleanSpark’s balance sheet liquidity as of March 31, 2026. The company reported $260.3 million in cash and $925.2 million in company-defined Bitcoin HODL value on that date, alongside $1.788 billion in long-term debt and $1.927 billion in total liabilities. When compared with the project’s calculated cost, the build equals roughly 6.7 to 8.1 times the cash balance, 1.9 to 2.3 times the HODL value, and about 98% to 117% of long-term debt—underscoring that Sandersville cannot be funded from existing cash alone.

CleanSpark also reported a $378.3 million net loss for the quarter ended March 31, which included a $224.1 million Bitcoin fair-value loss and a $38.8 million loss on Bitcoin collateral. Those items can materially sway reported results and balance sheet line items, making the quarterly net loss a limited lens for judging ongoing cash use. Bitcoin remains a potential source of liquidity, collateral, or sale proceeds, subject to how much is encumbered and the company’s preferred exposure. Coins pledged to a lender cannot also serve as an unencumbered reserve, a complexity previously examined in coverage of how collateral-held Bitcoin can distort headline HODL figures.

Financing routes shift where risk lands

CleanSpark’s July lease announcement names no lender, committed financing amount, pricing, sponsor equity contribution, or draw schedule. One plausible structure is project finance built around the site with the tenant-backed lease as the core contractual asset, but the protections and burdens would hinge on the final package. Sponsor guarantees, corporate recourse, Bitcoin collateral, or a sizable sponsor equity commitment would move risk back toward CleanSpark; a stronger lease-centric approach could keep more risk within the project perimeter.

The company’s filings also tie financing to performance. CleanSpark must meet applicable financing, construction, and delivery milestones, along with other covenants and conditions. Failures could trigger rent abatements or termination, which would directly affect the very cash flows that any project financing would rely upon. In other words, the ability to maintain the lease on track is intertwined with the ability to fund and complete the build itself.

Funding the project through the corporate balance sheet would expose shareholders more directly. Additional corporate debt would add to a long-term debt base that included a $1.769 billion net carrying balance for zero-coupon convertible notes as of March 31. New common equity or equity-linked securities would dilute existing holders. Bitcoin sales would reduce treasury exposure that some investors consider a liquidity buffer, while Bitcoin-backed borrowing would preserve nominal coin ownership but introduce collateral, margin, and liquidation risk. The company also disclosed $400 million in undrawn Bitcoin-backed credit lines as of March 31 that require Bitcoin collateral.

Technology use case and broader market signals

By contracting for 175 MW of critical IT load, Sandersville moves CleanSpark from pitching AI infrastructure toward executing a revenue-bearing data center role. The lease structure aims to match long-lived AI compute demand with long-term cash flows, while the construction budget and milestone obligations emphasize execution risk. The project’s phased delivery beginning in Q4 2027 leaves open the schedule for the full 175 MW and the precise rent-commencement timeline for each phase.

Related industry developments highlight the competitive capital environment. Prior coverage of CoreWeave’s funding underscores how AI is attracting capital and liquidity, while analysis of Hut 8’s AI landlord model shows how project debt can coexist with Bitcoin-backed bridge financing. A separate look at Bitdeer observed that AI cloud growth may reduce sell pressure even as Bitcoin retention lags, and public-sector debate over a proposed Bitcoin-backed bond in New Hampshire—rejected by a 3-2 vote—illustrates how moving BTC collateral into more formal structures can face additional hurdles. These touchpoints frame why Sandersville’s financing mix, risk sharing, and collateral choices matter for crypto miners entering AI-oriented data center markets.

What is and isn’t included

The Texas opportunity mentioned alongside Sandersville is not part of the signed contract pipeline. CleanSpark says the same tenant executed a letter of intent and exclusivity agreement tied to the company’s 718-acre Texas portfolio and up to 885 MW of what it describes as secured and planned power capacity. That arrangement remains a letter of intent, not a completed lease.

Bottom line

Sandersville elevates CleanSpark from an AI infrastructure proposal to a contracted, long-duration lease with a high-investment-grade tenant, but the decisive elements—financing terms, construction execution, delivery schedule, and covenant performance—are still to come. The project’s size relative to cash, the conditional nature of the $6.6 billion headline value, and milestone-linked remedies mean the eventual structure will determine where risk ultimately sits: with CleanSpark’s Bitcoin holdings, its corporate balance sheet, or its shareholders.