11/12/2024

speaker
Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to Terrah Wolf's 3rd quarter 2024 Earning School. At this time all participants are in lesson only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star then zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, John Loughlin, Senior Vice President, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

speaker
John Loughlin

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon and welcome to Terrah Wolf's 3rd quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Chairman and CEO Paul Prager and CFO Patrick Fleury. Before we get started, please note that our remarks today may include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially. During this call, we may use words like anticipate, could, enable, estimate, intend, expect, believe, potential, will, should, project, and similar expressions, which indicate forward-looking statements. For a more comprehensive discussion of these and other risks, please refer to our filings with the SEC, available on sec.gov, and in the Investor section of our website at terrahwolf.com. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures today. Please refer to our 10-K and 10-Q filings and our website for full reconfiliations to the most comparable GAAP measures. You can also find our updated investor deck on our website. We will start with prepared remarks from Paul and Patrick, followed by a Q&A session. I'll now turn the call over to Paul Prager, our CEO.

speaker
Paul Prager

Thank you, John, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate your joining us today as we discuss our third quarter results. For those new to Terrah Wolf, we are a leading energy and digital infrastructure company focused on utilizing predominantly zero-carbon energy to power our operations. Our management team has over 30 years of experience in energy infrastructure, with a proven track record in financing, designing, building, and operating power, and power infrastructure projects. Our flagship Lake Mariner facility, located in upstate New York Zone A, is a prime example of a strategy in action. We're situated only 35 miles from Niagara Falls, in a region where over 90% of the energy comes from zero-carbon resources. This strategic location, combined with our access to scalable infrastructure and power, abundant land, and reliable water resources, positions us uniquely in the market. We believe this focus on clean, cost-effective energy bodes well for the future. As we look ahead, we're confident in our approach. We see the industry increasingly aligning with our core strengths, namely low-cost sustainable energy and a commitment to operational excellence. The steps we took this quarter have set a strong foundation as we head into what we believe will be a pivotal year in 2025. Let's talk about what we accomplished in the third quarter. We've been hard at work making substantial progress across our strategic, financial, and operational priorities. To start, I want to highlight a major strategic transaction. In early October, we sold our 25% stake in the Nautilus Cryptomine joint venture to Talon Energy. The transaction, valued at $92 million, delivered a 3.4 times return on our investment. More importantly, this sale has streamlined our operations and gives us the flexibility to focus on expanding our high-performance computing capabilities at Lake Mariner. It's a win-win that sets the stage for what's next. Building on that momentum, we also secured a new long-term ground lease at Lake Mariner. This isn't just a simple lease extension. It's a game-changer. We increased our total acreage by nearly 50% from 107 to 157 acres without any additional cost per acre. And crucially, we now have exclusive rights to up to 750 megawatts of infrastructure capacity and power, which positions us well to attract top-tier, high-speed compute clients looking for scale and reliability. And it's with us now. On the financial side, we had a strong quarter as well. In July, we cleared out legacy debt, freeing up capital that we're now deploying into our Wolf Compute business. This critical milestone comes at a perfect time as we gear for a significant expansion into the high-speed compute market in 2025. I'd also like to highlight a recent capital raise. In October, we successfully raised $500 million through an oversubscribed convertible bond offering. This influx of capital gives us the flexibility we needed to continue investing in both our Bitcoin mining operations and our growing HPC initiatives. Timing is everything, and this capital positions us well to meet the demands of new tenants who need immediate access to power. We also took steps to return value to our shareholders. Our board approved a $200 million stock buyback program, and we've already repurchased $115 million worth of shares. We paired this with a capped call transaction in the convertible offering to protect against dilution up to a share price of $18.40, underscoring our commitment to driving shareholder value. Operationally, we held our ground despite some tough market conditions, especially following the Bitcoin having. Our cost to mine came in at approximately $54,000 per Bitcoin in the third quarter, keeping us among the industry's lowest cost producers. This level of efficiency is a key part of our strategy, something we're continually focusing on improving. We're also excited about the upgrades underway in our mining fleet. We've ordered the latest Bitmain S21 Pro miners, which are set to arrive through early Q1 2025. These -the-art machines will boost our efficiency and take our fleet performance to the next level. On the high-speed compute hosting front, we're making steady progress with the construction of our new HPC facilities. We've completed construction of our 2.5 MW Proof of Concept project in the third quarter, and the 20 MW CB1 and 50 MW CB2 data centers are on schedule to be up and running in Q1 and Q2 of next year respectively. We're in advanced discussions with potential tenants and expect to announce our first HPC hosting partner before the end of the year. Looking ahead, we're doubling down on our core strategy. By locating our operations in regions with abundant, low-cost, predominantly zero-carbon power, we're positioned to thrive in a market where securing clean energy is becoming increasingly challenging. The recent regulatory shifts around data centers at nuclear power plants have underscored just how tough it can be to lock down large-scale carbon-free power. This is why our Lake Marana facility, with its direct grid connection and robust energy infrastructure, is peerless. We believe our energy assets are second to none, and we're laser-focused on leveraging these strengths to continue delivering value for our shareholders. I'll now turn it over to Patrick Flurry, who will walk you through the financials in more detail. Patrick.

speaker
Patrick

Thank you, Paul. As Paul stated, the third quarter and beginning of the fourth quarter was a busy time for Wolf with strong financial results, even in a challenging business environment, following the Bitcoin reward halving in April. In the third quarter of 2024, we self-mined 442 Bitcoin at Lake Marana, and our net share of Bitcoin mined at Nautilus was 113, for a total of 555 Bitcoin, or about six Bitcoin per day. A 21% decrease over the 699 Bitcoin mined in 2Q24. Our gap revenues were down 24% -over-quarter at 27.1 million in 3Q24, from 35.6 million in 2Q24. Our value per Bitcoin self-mined this quarter, a non-gap metric that includes Bitcoin mined at Nautilus, averaged 61,075 per Bitcoin, for a total of 33.9 million, as detailed and defined in our monthly operating reports, press releases, and MD&A section of our 10Q. As a reminder, there is a key difference between our gap financials and the monthly operating reports in 2024 guidance. Due to our 25% historical ownership in Nautilus, the revenue, cost of revenue, operating expenses, depreciation, and amortization at Nautilus are not consolidated into our gap financial statements. Instead, the financial impact of the Nautilus Joint Venture is reflected in the equity and net income, or loss, of investing net of tax line item on the gap income statement. This is the last quarter I'll mention the difference, as we sold our 25% ownership in Nautilus for $85 million in cash, effective October 2nd, 2024. Our gap cost of revenue, exclusive of depreciation, for 3Q24 was $14.7 million, a 5% increase over $13.9 million in 2Q24. The -over-quarter increase was due to a slight increase in realized power prices, offset by demand response proceeds of $4.1 million in 3Q24 versus $1.9 million in 2Q24. Our power cost, or cost of energy per Bitcoin mined, a non-gap metric that includes Bitcoin mined at Nautilus, was $30,448 in 3Q24 compared to $22,954 in 2Q24. As a reminder, in our gap financials, unlike our monthly operating reports, the company records proceeds received and to be received for demand response programs as a reduction in cost of revenue. As previously mentioned, these expected proceeds totaled $4.1 million in 3Q24 and $1.9 million in 2Q24. For 3Q24, we achieved an average power cost of $0.038 per kilowatt hour compared to $0.037 in 2Q24. Operating expenses decreased 5%, -over-quarter, from $1.7 million in 2Q24 to $1.6 million in 3Q24. SG&A expenses decreased 4%, -over-quarter, from $11.9 million in 2Q24 to $11.5 million in 3Q24. Adjusting for stock-based compensation, SG&A increased 28%, -over-quarter, from $7.1 million in 2Q24 to $9.1 million in 3Q24. For our updated 2024 guidance in our 2Q24 slides, with our entry into high-power compute hosting and need for more staff, we anticipate approximately $30 million of SG&A in 2024. Appreciation increased slightly -over-quarter, from $14.1 million in 2Q24 to $15.6 million in 3Q24, which is the result of our continued infrastructure build-out. Gain on fair value of digital currency in 3Q24 was $0.9 million, whereas we incurred a loss of $0.7 million in 2Q24. Impairment of PP&E in 3Q24 was $0.4 million, related to the expected sale of 1,200 miners for proceeds of $0.2 million. Gap interest expense in 3Q24 and 2Q24 was $0.4 million and $5.3 million, respectively, which includes cash interest expense and amortization of debt issuance costs and debt discounts related to the term loan financing. Cash interest paid during 3Q24 was only $0.7 million due to the full repayment of our debt on July 9th ahead of maturity. In connection with this voluntary prepayment of debt, the company incurred prepayment fees of $0.9 million, wrote off unamortized debt discount of $3.3 million associated with the principal repaid, and recorded a loss on extinguishment of debt of $4.3 million. Other income of $0.4 million in 3Q24 reflects interest earned on cash held in our commercial banking accounts. In 3Q24, we reported a loss of $2.7 million in equity of investee, net of tax, as compared to income of $0.8 million in 2Q24. These amounts represent Terrell's proportional share of net income or loss of the Nautilus Joint venture. Our GAAP net loss attributable to common shareholders for the third quarter was $23.0 million, compared to a net loss of $11.2 million in 2Q24. Our non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA for 3Q24 was $6.0 million, compared to $19.5 million in 2Q24. Turning our attention to the balance sheet, as of September 30th, we held $24 million in cash, with total assets amounting to $405 million and total liabilities of $33 million. As disclosed on page 15 of our November Investor Deck, we achieved a marginal cost of production, including every cash cost in the company, of approximately $54,000 in 3Q24, and expect to achieve approximately $59,000 in 4Q24 and $47,000 in 1Q25. Regarding our anticipated operating performance in 4Q24, Lake Mariner will be taking a planned outage on miner buildings 1, 2, and 4, which will impact approximately 5.2x the hash of mining capacity for approximately one week commencing mid-November, as we connect our ultra-high voltage redundant power feeds from the grid to support our high-power compute data center infrastructure. The scope of the outage is focused on the high voltage connection and electrical infrastructure to enable delivery of redundant power supply to CB1 and CB2 in 1Q25 and 2Q25 respectively. On pages 12 and 13 of the November Investor Deck, you'll find our anticipated capital sources and uses bridge for 4Q24 and fiscal year 2025. Regarding our capital position and growth plans over this period, we are funded with over $380 million of unallocated excess cash in 2025. In October, we opportunistically executed a $500 million convertible financing, utilizing $60 million of net proceeds to purchase a capped call and thereby neutralizing dilution from the offering until the stock price is 100% above the reference price of $6.40 per share, which is $12.80 per share. We also simultaneously repurchased $115 million of common stock for approximately 18 million shares. The impact of which results in no effective dilution from the convertible offering until greater than $18 a share, a huge win for Wolf shareholders. As discussed on prior earnings calls, we are targeting a high-power compute customer contract with a one-year revenue prepay and expect to execute project financing for approximately 70% of the total project cost. In 4Q24 and into 2025, we expect the following approximate capital expenditures. Number one, $400 million on Wolf compute and related electrical infrastructure and upgrades at the site, including CB1 and CB2, both liquid-cooled, redundant, and high-power density infrastructure expected to be substantially complete in first half 2025, bringing our high-power compute co-location hosting capacity to 72.5 megawatts. Number two, $23 million on construction of Building 5, a 50-megawatt Bitcoin mining building expected to be operational in 1Q25. And number three, $79 million on miner purchases for Building 5 and our fleet upgrade. At Wolf, our financial objectives remain clear and simple. Maximize profits, secure long-term high-quality customers and high-power compute hosting, and create value for our shareholders, all while providing investors access through transparency and accountability. With that, I'll turn it back over to the operator and we look forward to answering

speaker
Wolf

your questions. Thank

speaker
Operator

you. At this time, we will be conducting a question-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star and then 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and then 1 now. The first question that we have comes from Lucas Pipes of B Reilly Securities. Please go ahead.

speaker
Wolf Den

Thank you very much, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. My first question is on slide 12. It shows the remaining spend at CB1. I wondered how much of this capital has been spent to date on a gross dollar and dollar per megawatt hour basis, and how should we think about first half of 2025 outlay with CB2 construction? Thank you very much.

speaker
Patrick

Hey, Lucas, it's Patrick. Thanks for your question. So, on CB1, just, I guess, maybe let's just start from the beginning. So, the Wolf Den of 2.5 megawatts, that build cost is approximately 10 million. The build cost for CB1 total is about 100. Right? So that's a 20 megawatt building. So about 5 million per megawatt to build. And then the build cost for CB2, which is 50 megawatt building, is call it 250 to 300. And so about 5 and a half ish million per megawatt. And so, as you can imagine, CB, Wolf Den is operationally complete. CB1 is going to be complete operationally at the end of the first quarter. So that money is going out the door very quickly these days. And then CB2 will be operationally complete end of the second quarter. So there's just, there's a lot of capital moving out the door here over the next couple of

speaker
Wolf Den

months. Patrick, this is very helpful. Thank you. And in terms of the first customer expected by year end, I wondered if you could give us a sense for the magnitude in terms of megawatts. How should we think about contract structure and other multiple counterparties that you're in discussions with or an anchor position or having mostly narrowed down here to maybe one party? Thank you. Thank

speaker
Wolf

you for any color. Paul, do you want to take that or would you like me to? What do you start?

speaker
Patrick

So, I think we will likely have one or two customers for the 72 and a half megawatts. Those negotiations are very advanced. I think, as we've said publicly, we will not announce an LOI. LOIs are nonbinding and we will only announce a definitive lease agreement. So, as we said repeatedly, as Paul said in his remarks, we expect that announcement before year end. And that, like I said, we'll cover all of our initial capacity through the first half of next year. And that will be one or two customers. Beyond that, I think we're being very careful. I mean, as we're all seeing the market is incredibly dynamic, particularly with the FERC ruling from a couple of weeks ago. And we may have that same customer or customers will most likely have options for additional capacity, but that will be options that have to be exercised by a date certain along with a one year revenue prepay that comes simultaneous with the option. So, the option will not be a free option. That's we're not in the business of given free options on Wolf Shareholder. So, it'll be an option with a hard date with a hard payment that will then allow us to go get that project financing. Because we'll have an actual lease, we'll have a one year revenue prepay. And then obviously we're going to have existing buildings operating at the site. And as you know, it's always easier to get a project financing done when you can point to existing infrastructure that is operating. So that that's the intention. And like I said, I think we're just the scramble for power has only intensified since the FERC ruling. And so we just want to make sure that all of our future capacity megawatts that we get the best deal. So I think that's where we stand. Paul, do you want to add anything?

speaker
Paul Prager

No, I think that's right. And I think, you know, I would want to underscore what Patrick just said in closing, which is that as a result of the recent FERC ruling, it's not clear to us that one can't assume that there'll be better, more enhanced contract terms and values. So I don't think that we need to rush beyond the initial 72 megawatts. But of course, we're prepared to do that with the right customer as long as contract terms are in the interest of our shareholders.

speaker
Wolf Den

Paul, Patrick, this was very comprehensive. I really appreciate all the color and to you and the entire team continue best of luck. Thanks, Lucas.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. The next question we have come from Mike Grondel of Northland Securities. Please go ahead.

speaker
Mike Grondel

Hey, guys. Thank you. You know, Patrick and Paul, on the demand environment, you know, it sounds very robust, and it sounds to be intensifying. Any sense you can give us just on maybe in the last 90 days, the benefit you've seen on the pricing side or the term side? How has it kind of changed any order of magnitude?

speaker
Paul Prager

I

speaker
Wolf

think there's, you know,

speaker
Paul Prager

there's some private deals that have been done, and I think pricing, you know, per kilowatt hour has increased on the margins. I think there are more parties prepared to meet the terms that Patrick outlined in response to Lucas. And there are, there seems to be a greater interest to tie up as many megawatts as possible now with one party as opposed to sort of look for multiple sites. So, I think the FERC ruling has resulted in higher value sites and targets are going to see higher values.

speaker
Patrick

Yeah, Mike, I would just add to that too, right? I think we've been talking for a long time about how not all sites are created equal, right? And how our site is a retired coal plant. So we're blessed with a lot of critical electrical infrastructure at the site along with access to land, water. And. You know, the FERC ruling really puts a point on that, right? Because if you are in PJM, or if you have, you know, behind the meter generation, then you have to deal with FERC. You know, at a site like ours, we don't. It's sites in Texas, for example, because they're caught in Electric Island. They don't. So I think what we're seeing is certainly even just post the ruling. Sites that have access to a lot of power and land and water, and they're very sizable are sort of moving up in the pecking order and getting a lot more attention.

speaker
Mike Grondel

Got

speaker
Patrick

it.

speaker
Mike Grondel

And then Patrick, to you, you know, I think it was on the last conference call, you kind of began to outline how you guys were, you know, going to be able to do HPC without additional equity in terms of using the one year prepayments. And roughly 75% project financing. Do you feel even better about that today? You know, what have you kind of learned through that process the last 90 days?

speaker
Patrick

Yeah, look, I would say it's nice to not be on an island, staying that Mike, you know, I think it's other people on this call. I'm sure listen to, you know, Novogratz on the Galaxy call talk about how project financing is readily available. Right? And there's other peers of ours that are in that market now, too. So that market is getting much more developed. You know, as you know, we've always been saying that, you know, we've, we've, that's been our plan from day one, but it's nice to see that market get more and more attention. Robust. But yeah, I mean, I think if you look on page 13 of our slide deck and, you know, we sort of go through painstaking detail on pages 12 and 13 to show you. But, you know, I hope page 13 hits people right on the forehead. I mean, we are, we have a lot of unallocated cash. And so if the market's not trading us at the right multiple, I think, you know, we've shown we've authorized the 200 million buyback. We bought back 115 million of stock. You know, this, this management team board and insiders, you know, all in about 30% of the equity of the company. So, yeah, I mean, we're, we're well on our way now with the convert and, you know, no effective dilution under $18 a share. So, yeah, I mean, I'm really excited. I think for a long time, as you know, I've been talking about being the first Bitcoin miner to go the other way to buy back stock or pay a dividend and start returning cash to shareholders. And I would just add, I think I am extremely proud of this team. You know, everyone from the site level folks that are operating to the management team that we have broken that ceiling and are the first one. And not only that, but you look at this quarter, we had a positive EBITDA quarter. I can name four or five of my peers that, you know, claim to be sort of industry leaders that are quote bigger and better than we are that all lost money on the EBITDA line mining Bitcoin this quarter. It's just not a viable long term business and I get Bitcoin flying now. I get it. But you got to make money in your underlying business and we do. And Mike,

speaker
Paul Prager

just to get back to where the question should get back to where the question started though. I want to emphasize on the project finance side. You know, it is readily available, but it is heavily credit dependent, you know, so that is why the company has taken the time it has to sort of sift through all the customers to try and come up with what's the best possible determination from a credit and from contract terms so that we can enable that project financing. And so I think in the end, our investors will determine it was time well spent. But this is all about creating value for the shareholders and project finance of high speed compute and AI is the way to do it.

speaker
Wolf

Thanks guys.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. The next question we have comes from Brett Noblock of Canto Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.

speaker
Brett

Hi guys, thanks for taking my question. Maybe if we could start just on what you guys are currently expecting for the back half of next year. And I said, it's known you guys still have a lot of new places, the 20 and 50 megawatt building. But should you want to start building called CD3, I would assume a lot of those long lead items will need to be ordered somewhat shortly. Should we be putting in anything for the back half of next year or how are you guys just thinking about that now?

speaker
Patrick

Yeah, look, good question, Brett. I think we will provide 25 guidance, you know, when I think when we put our file, our 10 K in February. But for now, you know, I would just say, you know, we have on page 17 what we're capable of delivering, but whether we do that will depend on our customers and how fast or slow they want to run. Because remember, it's not just, you know, what can we deliver? I mean, we can deliver that capacity, but it's a function of, you know, where is our customer with Nvidia? Where are they on their capital raise? Where are they? With their end market demand. So there's a lot of different factors that go into sort of how fast or slow the customers want to put up capacity, but we can run as fast or slow as they want. So, I think, you know, page 17 shows what we're capable of doing. And I think we'll be able to provide even more color once we announce the customer contract. And then once we provide guidance in February.

speaker
Brett

Okay, no, that's helpful on the wolf. Then what is the current game plan for using that given it is operational today? Is this something that could be generating revenue in the current quarter?

speaker
Patrick

Yeah, it's operational today. But what we found is, and if you remember initially. We were contemplating for a hot second, you know, to buy GPUs and put them in there ourselves. And what we quickly garnered is all of our customers want all of our capacity. So, and we don't, you know, we don't have the same cost of capital as Amazon or Microsoft or meta or Google or any of the hyperscalers. So we don't want to be in the GPU as a service business. That's not what we know best. We know energy power infrastructure and so we didn't want to be competing with our customer and they want all that capacity and the highest and best use of that from a valuation perspective is to run it for our customers. So that's what we'll be doing. And I think you'll see that capacity go to the customer customers that I referenced before.

speaker
Brett

Thanks, I may just one more. I know you guys are currently eminently waiting another 250 megawatt approval from the utility. I guess any update on timing for that? And is that something that's needed before you can sign the customer contracts?

speaker
Patrick

So, the short answer that's no, the timing of that is. End of fourth quarter, beginning of first quarter. And, you know, we, like I said, we expect that capacity when you're looking at what we're bringing online. By the middle of next year, we expect to be able to start pulling that energy the middle of next year.

speaker
Wolf

Perfect thanks really appreciate it guys. Thanks.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. The next question we have comes from Darren of Ross capital partners. Please go ahead. Hey,

speaker
spk10

this is Dylan for Darren. Thanks for taking my questions. To start when you look at some of the timelines on HPC, like, how, how long is the way between when you sort of finish the construction of these next 2 buildings? And obviously you plan on announcing a customer by year end and when they can sort of get GPUs in there and start charging

speaker
Wolf

revenue. Yeah, so I, I

speaker
Patrick

think

speaker
Wolf

I

speaker
Patrick

apologize if I'm missing a question. I think we are asking is. You know, we're we're completing Dylan, you know, the Wolf's Den is operational complete. The 20 megawatt building will be operationally complete end of 1st quarter. So I think realistically, you know, and you can see this on page. On page

speaker
Wolf

13

speaker
Patrick

of our deck. But the, the, the cash from operations, the cash flow from operations in 2025. You know, we've we've assumed, you know, that. CB1 and CB2 are operating for 9 months and 6 months respectively, like revenue generating.

speaker
Wolf

Okay, thanks.

speaker
spk10

And then, I mean, considering the fleet upgrades, you're doing on the 195 megawatts of Bitcoin mining. Like, how do you think about the long term economics of Bitcoin mining versus some of the negotiations you're having for HPC, especially if that might. See more favorable contract terms for the next 100 megawatts or next 250 that you might have available long term.

speaker
Patrick

Yeah, it's a great question. Look, I mean, we're power. So we think about everything on a dollar per megawatt hour. Right. And if you think about the midpoint of, you know, our data on page 16, you know, that's roughly like 1.5Million of revenue per megawatt is roughly equivalent to 150 dollars a megawatt hour. And so, you know, that's like, we're saying 70% margin business. So you're making a margin of about, you know, 100 bucks a megawatt out. And so, depending upon what type of miner you're mining with today, right? You can back into what your profit is on a dollar per megawatt hour basis. And I think the tough part about that, right? Is people tend to look at Bitcoin in isolation, but you can't do that. You have to look at network cash rate as well. Right. Which is why I think when you go look at, you know, whether people made money that order or not, a lot of our peers didn't make money. And that's it's not just, you know, you need Bitcoin price to increase at a higher rate than network cash rate. And so I think that question is tough to answer, just given the volatility of Bitcoin price and network cash rate. But look, I think what we've said, certainly the next 500 megawatts of expansion for us is in high power computing AI, and that will probably coincide with the next halving. So we've got plenty of running room and then time to decide whether, you know, we keep mining Bitcoin or not. But, you know, we've got plenty of time to play that out.

speaker
Wolf

Great. Thank you.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. The next question we have comes from Joe Flynn of Compass Point Research and Trading. Please go ahead.

speaker
Joe Flynn

Hi. Thanks for the question. And to piggyback off an earlier question, following the 250 megawatts of New York ISO approvals, how early do you expect to be in the queue to request the additional 250? And then it also looks like the Cayuga Lake, you know, requests have already been submitted. So if there's any color you could add there, it'll be very helpful.

speaker
Patrick

Yeah, Paul, I'll take that. Then maybe you can add some color. So, hey, Joe. So the short answer is, you know, the getting in the queue for the next 250 will depend upon, again, how fast or slow our customers want to run with expansion. But that's a process that we're very familiar with at this point. And, you know, so I just, I don't know is the short answer yet, but if I had to guess, my guess would be, you know, probably at some point next year, we start that process again. Whether it's, you know, first half or second half, I'm not sure. It's just going to depend on the cadence of the build out. And then with regard to Cayuga, look, that's a great asset, similar to Lake Mariner. It is owned in the private company. But I don't know, Paul, if there's any other color you want to

speaker
Paul Prager

add. And you guys started this process to ensure that at some point it can meet the needs of a company like Terrawolf. And if that's something that Terrawolf and their customers and shareholders, you know, think we're in the best interests of our shareholders, then there'll be a process, you know, an independent committee of the board and, you know, valuations and contract terms were used by independent council. For the independent committee and all that sort of good stuff. But Cayuga is not sleeping and they're doing what they need to do because time to power is the most critical thing for Terrawolf's customers and Terrawolf wants to ensure that they can meet those needs by both, you know, the assets we currently have and the assets that, you know, we're looking at as part of our development pipeline.

speaker
Joe Flynn

Great. I appreciate the color. And then, Patrick, on figure 13, you know, talk about the $387 million of unallocated cash following the prepay and project financing. I mean, do you see an opportunity to be kind of opportunistic with, you know, the remaining buyback there and just go forward? Do you expect the process of adding additional megawatts to be a capex component that you guys are going to take care of up front or do you think the remaining call 250 would be primarily project finance first and then lead to additional shareholder return opportunities?

speaker
Patrick

Yeah, great question, Joe. So we're going to try in the future. I mean, I guess as I look at next year, I think what we'll probably do is middle of the year, we'll take ourselves out of effectively equity funding, Wolfson, CB1 and CB2. So that's on page 13 or sorry on page. Yeah, sorry. On page 13, that's the big blue $260 million project financing bar. So that's financing those 3 buildings.

speaker
Wolfson

So,

speaker
Patrick

for the future going forward, like I said, as customers execute options for additional capacity, the way we're setting that up is, you know, at the time of the execution of the option, they're required to make a 1 year revenue prepay, which will allow me to go do the project financing up front. So, I won't have to equity fund it. So that would mean that full 387 million is fully unallocated and available. That's the goal.

speaker
Wolf

Great, thanks.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. The next question we have comes from Brian Dodson of Clear Streets. Please go ahead.

speaker
Brian Dodson

Thanks very much for taking my question. So your comments regarding continuing progress toward the contract is here. Very encouraging. You mentioned that you were in advanced discussions. Were those parties able to view your Wolf Den proof of content facility? And what was their feedback? If any.

speaker
Paul Prager

Hi, this is Paul. The customers that we have engaged with in advanced discussions have all been to the site, have all seen what we've done there and have had advanced discussions on the operation and construction level with members of Terraloft. To be honest, you know, they were uniformly pleased with what we've got there. It was a difference, I think, with one of the customers. You know, it's all about where they want to put the cooling. Do they want to put it in the rack? Do they want to put it in the building? So that drives cost. So that led to more discussions, but people were really, they loved the site and they wanted as much of it as they could.

speaker
Brian Dodson

Great. Thanks for that color. And I guess as a second question, there's been obviously a lot of discussion in the industry regarding the recent election and administration change in Washington. Is there anything that you'd like to add to that discussion? And what do you think clear regulation could do for the industry over the next several years?

speaker
Paul Prager

Sure, I'll start if that's okay, Patrick. You know, listen, I think the election, you know, we want to think about it in two ways. The first going back to the question just asked about Patrick about, you know, three and a half years, you know, post-having. How do we think about, you know, Bitcoin mining versus using those megawatts that are currently allocated to Bitcoin mining to high power compute? And the answer is, you know, we still have plenty of runway, as Patrick said, before we have to make that conclusion. For the meantime, Bitcoin is, you know, really performing very well. And we'll just have to see where Bitcoin goes as we think about it. But again, the higher the price, the higher the hash rate, the higher expensive it is to buy machines out of Bitmain. So I think there are other, you know, questions that we'll want to consider at the time. You know, I think we'll see a different valuation in the marketplace if we're a true HPCAI company as opposed to a company that also has Bitcoin mining. Though now, under a new administration, investment in Bitcoin miners may, you know, may be perceived differently by both investors, banks, stuff like that. From a regulation perspective, listen, the last time President Trump was in office, there was a difference in the regulatory bodies and the time it took to get things done. In the real estate and power side, we're energy infrastructure folks here. And we welcome regulation when it's sensible, when it becomes a way to sort of, you know, just put a roadblock after roadblock. It's kind of a bummer. So I think that we'll see a cleaner regulatory environment that will enable quality energy infrastructure projects to get up and running with greater agility and maybe with a little less operating burden. But I think the important elements of regulation, like, you know, with respect to the environment, they'll stay because in the best interests of everybody. And it's why we've stayed focused on locating our facilities where there was, you know, 91% green energy as a resource. So, you know, I look forward. Certain things just won't change, though. Still going to take four years to develop a new gas facility. Right. And, you know, nuke is a ways off. And the time to power is everything right now for the customers that we're speaking to. So. You know, regulation is only part of the puzzle in terms of meeting the need for energy infrastructure.

speaker
Brian Dodson

Yeah, I'm very good. Thanks very much.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. The next question we have comes from John to Darrow off the end company. Please go ahead.

speaker
John

Hey, guys, two questions for you around basically the leaf that's coming up. First off, that slide that you've referenced where I think it's 1.3 to 1.8 million per megawatt in the economics. I believe you've had that for a while. So just wondering if given the demand we're hearing from you and peers, is there's potential to kind of walk that up? And then second, or kind of the key economics around this lease already agreed to what are the kind of the sticking points? If there are any, are we kind of in the home stretch? Just trying to get a little bit sense of timing around that.

speaker
Patrick

Yeah, I'll address that first. So, John, on page sixteen, we've had this deck. This page in our deck since may, we did make some small tweaks to it. You'll notice if you look carefully, but anything that we didn't tweak means we didn't tweak it. So, it is, it exists on page sixteen and it's full glory. And then I'm not going to answer any of the second part of your question due to material nonpublic information concerns.

speaker
John

But you guys are still, I guess, expecting kind of before year end. And is there just kind of a degree of confidence we can get

speaker
Wolf

around that? Yeah, we're going to have a customer

speaker
Paul Prager

announced prior to year end and it will be in the form of a full-blown agreement. And I would tell you that terms and all that's fungible. But again, our focus is on a fantastic quality credit that will enable us to go out and project finance CB1 and CB2. And so, and so while there may be a ton more people looking for power, I think we're limiting our focus to the customers that we think are real thoughtful. We think could provide the requisite guarantees. We think would be known to the market or quickly can educate the market as to their financial credibility. And they could meet the potential scalability of our site because while we may be able to have multiple customers on site, I think from a scale perspective and just in building the relationship with a data center customer, it'd be ideal if we could work with a couple, maybe two or three and not more. So, you know, I could take an easy shot here and tell you anytime you have lawyers involved, things take longer than you hope. But we have lawyers involved and we will have a customer by year end.

speaker
Wolf

Got it.

speaker
Paul Prager

Great. Well, thank you guys. Appreciate it.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. The next question we have comes from Kevin Cassidy of Rosenblatt Securities. Please go ahead. Yes,

speaker
Kevin Cassidy

thanks for taking my question and just just for clarity, the redundant power that you're bringing in, is that only for

speaker
Wolf

the co location areas? Yeah,

speaker
Patrick

so Kevin, I'm going to answer that question and then I'm going to double back with my operations team and make sure I got it right. But I'm fairly certain I do, which is the site. Yeah. Right now we have redundant power. Believe for all 250 megawatts, but as the site expands that redundant power, I think will likely remain principally focused on the high power compute hosting building. We don't need necessarily redundant power for Bitcoin mining. I mean, our site has literally only gone dark. Once in the last 45 years in 2003 in the great blackout. So I'm not overly concerned about redundant power at the Bitcoin mining facilities, but most certainly our high power compute customers are, which is understandable. So it will the redundant power will be principally focused on those operations.

speaker
Paul Prager

And please remember that the principles both on site and in management here at Tarot Wolf operated that as a power plant for for a real long time prior prior to shutting down and mitigating in a deal with the state. So we're pretty familiar with with how that site works. And and again, we think Bitcoin is a really flexible load. High speed compute and AI is not and our customers don't want to be as flexible, though they're willing to be far more flexible than than I think the data centers of old. So we'll have that redundancy there for them.

speaker
Kevin Cassidy

Okay, great. Thanks for clearing that up. And then also, when you sold, you've got a lot of mining machines. Are those being installed in at Lake Mariner or are you going to sell those?

speaker
Patrick

Yeah, so both is the short answer, Kevin. So I think in our deck, we put on page seven, so we did sell the majority of the miners from cumulus for about ten and a half million dollars that's been realized and sold. And then we did change out some of the XPs and you can see the sort of movement on page eight of our deck, like what we took out, what we installed. But we just are trying to get a more efficient fleet. So the miners that were more efficient, we took the miners that were less efficient, we sold and monetized for cash.

speaker
Wolf

Okay, great. Thanks.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. The final question we have comes from both Papa Nastasio of Stifle. Please go ahead.

speaker
Papa Nastasio

Yeah, good evening, gentlemen, and thanks for taking my questions. Patrick, I appreciate the comparative analysis that you provided between Bitcoin mining economics and the core scientific deal. I'm curious if you can share some general thoughts on how demand for power capacity has trended as your discussions with the hyperscaler have become more and more advanced. How sustainable is this level of demand for power that's set to come online in 2026 and onwards? Can the engine keep running at the same cadence? I hope you can provide some further advice.

speaker
Patrick

Yeah,

speaker
Paul Prager

Paul, do you want me to take that or do you want to take it? I'm happy to. I mean, listen, there's significant growth expected. You know, McKinsey said data center demand would triple by 2030, driven predominantly by the high speed computer workloads, which are projected to grow from 40 to over 70% of our total power capacity by 2030. I mean, historically, power demand has grown at 1% per year. I'm now seeing 5% annual growth. This highlights if anything, the growing scarcity of power. I'm not I'm not, you know, as I said earlier. Yes, plans for years, four years. If you think about it today and you're ready to roll nukes long ways off. You know, so I think that the demand is real. I think it's the beginning, not the end. I think it's the tip of the iceberg. If you will, particularly as the enterprise customers choose to come online. So, I think terrible is very well positioned because of the site we have and the experience of the team as energy infrastructure developers. So, I'm very constructive with respect to terrible in this

speaker
Wolf

power hungry environment. Thank you.

speaker
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back to Paul Prager for closing comments. Please go ahead, sir.

speaker
Paul Prager

Sure. Thank you, operator. Before we close today's call, I just want to leave you all with a few final thoughts. Terrible is clearly leading the charge with top tier assets, industry best unit economics and unrivaled skill ability in our owned infrastructure. As a significant shareholder myself, I am fully aligned with our commitment to a creative growth and maximizing value for our shareholders. We are optimistic about what lies ahead. We're confident in our strategy to deliver sustainable growth. I thank you all for participating this evening and for your continued trust.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that then concludes today's conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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