TeraWulf Falls 7% After New York Pauses Data Center Permits

TeraWulf’s Nasdaq-listed shares dropped about 7% after New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order temporarily pausing the issuance of state environmental permits for new large-scale data centers for up to one year.

The order, signed Tuesday, directs the state Department of Public Service to prepare a Generic Environmental Impact Statement to set standards for future data center projects. The pause will stay in place until the state finalizes that framework. New York will evaluate potential impacts including energy demand, water use and quality, and air emissions. Hochul also said she is pursuing legislation to repeal sales tax exemptions for large data centers across the state.

TeraWulf operates the Lake Mariner campus in New York and is developing a second site at Lake Hawkeye. Kerri Langlais, TeraWulf’s chief strategy officer, wrote in a statement that the executive order does not change the company’s current expectations for Lake Hawkeye, which remains a multi-year project, and that local planning and review processes already under way are unaffected. Langlais added that Lake Mariner is operational and the company’s expansion supporting Fluidstack and Google is fully permitted.

CEO Paul Prager posted on X that the company is evaluating on-site power for the Lake Hawkeye campus and that the plan “aligns directly with the governor's priorities for new generation.” Prager added on the platform that the company welcomes regulation and called the order “a positive step.”

TeraWulf has been expanding its artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) business alongside its bitcoin mining operations. In the first quarter, HPC lease revenue reached $21 million, surpassing bitcoin mining revenue for the first time. Total revenue for the quarter was $34 million, roughly unchanged from $34.4 million a year earlier, while digital asset mining revenue was just under $13 million.

Last week the company signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic at its Justified Data site in Hawesville, Kentucky, a deal the company said could generate roughly $19 billion in revenue over the term. Company executives have emphasized long-term, large-scale leases with AI and cloud customers as part of their growth strategy.

The moratorium applies to state environmental permits; local planning and permitting processes that are already under way will continue where applicable. New York officials said the review aims to create consistent environmental permitting standards for future data center development.