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CleanSpark seeks $2.2B through junk-bond offering for Meta-linked AI data center
The Bitcoin miner's pivot to AI infrastructure marks the first US junk-bond financing tied to a Meta data center project
CleanSpark, better known for mining Bitcoin than hosting AI workloads, is raising $2.227 billion through high-yield bonds to build out an AI data center campus. The tenant paying the bills: a subsidiary of Meta Platforms.
The offering, structured through subsidiary CSDC Finance I LLC, consists of senior secured notes due 2031. Proceeds will go toward completing a 175 MW AI data center campus in Sandersville, Georgia, reimbursing earlier equity contributions, and setting aside reserves for debt service.
It’s the first time US junk bonds have been used to finance a data center project linked to Meta.
The deal structure
The bonds carry an initial yield discussion of roughly 8.5%, which lands about 2 percentage points above the average yield for BB-rated debt.
Underpinning the entire deal is a 20-year triple-net lease with Anviran LLC, a Meta subsidiary. Under that arrangement, Anviran is responsible for rent and operational expenses, giving bondholders a predictable cash flow stream backed by one of the world’s largest tech companies.
The lease is expected to generate approximately $6.6 billion in contracted payments over its full term. Annual escalators of 3% are built into the structure, producing an estimated net operating income of around $330 million per year. Rent payments are slated to begin in November 2027, once the initial network hall is completed.
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CleanSpark first announced the lease back in July 2026, though at the time it kept the tenant’s identity under wraps. The September 17 reveal that Meta’s subsidiary was on the other end of the contract added significant credibility to the project.
From Bitcoin mining to AI hosting
The Sandersville campus represents a 175 MW footprint. For context, a single megawatt of data center capacity can power roughly 1,000 standard servers.
What sets this deal apart is the scale of financing and the counterparty. Having Meta as a guaranteed tenant through a 20-year lease gives the project a level of revenue certainty that most Bitcoin mining operations simply can’t match.
Why junk bonds, and why now
High-yield debt isn’t the first tool most people associate with data center financing. Historically, large data center operators like Equinix or Digital Realty have tapped investment-grade markets or used equity raises. But CleanSpark doesn’t carry an investment-grade rating, which means the junk-bond market is where it needs to go for this kind of capital.
If the lease generates $330 million annually in net operating income, the debt service coverage on $2.227 billion in bonds looks comfortable, assuming construction stays on schedule and rent payments begin as planned in late 2027.
CleanSpark’s stock responded positively to the announcement. The 8-K filing and accompanying press release laid out the terms clearly enough that the market could price in the implications quickly.