CleanSpark seeks $2.2B through junk-bond offering for Meta-linked AI data center

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 struc...