Microsoft has signed a $9.7 billion deal with IREN for next-gen AI cloud capacity — a move that cements the rise of former bitcoin miners as crucial players in the global AI infrastructure race.
The five-year contract gives Microsoft access to Nvidia GB300-based AI systems hosted at IREN’s massive Texas data center, marking one of the largest private-sector compute deals of 2025. The announcement sent IREN shares surging over 20 % in pre-market trading, extending a rally that has already lifted the stock more than 500 % this year amid an industry-wide GPU boom.
IREN — once known for its energy-intensive bitcoin mining operations — is now positioning itself at the forefront of a new class of data-center providers being dubbed “neoclouds.” These are companies born in crypto that are now redeploying their power-rich, high-cooling infrastructure to serve artificial intelligence workloads.
As part of the agreement, IREN will purchase roughly $5.8 billion worth of GPUs from Dell Technologies to build out the AI clusters that Microsoft will use through Azure. According to the company’s statement, the new capacity will generate nearly $1.9 billion in annualized revenue once fully deployed. IREN plans to roll out the hardware in phases through 2026, with the bulk of installations centered at its 750-megawatt Childress, Texas facility — a site originally developed for bitcoin mining but now being converted for AI compute.
For Microsoft, the deal is a strategic response to the global GPU shortage throttling cloud expansion. With demand for its Azure AI services soaring after the success of OpenAI-powered tools, the company has increasingly turned to leasing arrangements with independent infrastructure providers like IREN, CoreWeave, and Crusoe. These partnerships give Microsoft access to cutting-edge compute power without the need to build and operate new hyperscale data centers from scratch.
Analysts say the contract reflects a broader transformation sweeping across the tech and energy sectors. “Bitcoin miners have the exact infrastructure AI needs — cheap energy, cooling, and massive floor space,” said one market strategist. “What used to power crypto mining rigs is now powering large-language models.”
The partnership also underscores how the lines between crypto and AI infrastructure are blurring. IREN’s pivot mirrors that of CoreWeave, another former miner now valued at tens of billions after securing similar cloud contracts with major tech firms. Industry observers see these players as critical “bridges” between two once-distinct sectors — blockchain and artificial intelligence.
Still, challenges remain. Analysts warn of potential execution risks, given the enormous capital expenditures and the speed at which GPU architectures evolve. Scaling to enterprise-grade reliability and maintaining uptime across thousands of GPUs will test IREN’s operational resilience.
Yet for now, investors are celebrating the validation. The stock’s surge this morning signals growing belief that IREN’s AI transformation is real — and that the once-volatile world of crypto mining may have found its most profitable second act.
Microsoft’s $9.7 billion bet on IREN shows that in the AI era, compute power — not code — is the new gold rush.