Bitcoin Miner IREN Secures $3.4 Billion Nvidia AI Deal, With $2.1 Billion Share Option
Bitcoin miner IREN just locked in a $3.4 billion Nvidia AI deal and handed the chipmaker a $2.1 billion stock option, proof that yesterday’s hash-rate hustlers are now the gatekeepers of tomorrow’s compute boom.
A former Bitcoin mining outfit called IREN has struck a $3.4 billion cloud-services agreement with Nvidia to build out up to 5 gigawatts of next-generation AI infrastructure using the chipmaker’s DSX architecture. The pact hands Nvidia a five-year option to buy up to 30 million IREN shares at $70 apiece, an embedded $2.1 billion bet that the miner-turned-AI landlord can actually deliver the power, land, and cooling the AI race demands.
Implementation kicks off at IREN’s 2-gigawatt Sweetwater campus in Texas. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang framed the tie-up in civilizational terms: “AI factories are becoming foundational infrastructure for the global economy.” Daniel Roberts, IREN’s co-founder and co-CEO, returned the compliment, citing his firm’s command of “power, land, data centers, GPU deployment, and infrastructure operations.”
To hit the 5-gigawatt target, IREN is swallowing Spain’s Ingenostrum data-center developer, adding 490 megawatts of already-connected European capacity. That brings the company’s total power portfolio exactly in line with the Nvidia deployment size. The same footprint will also service IREN’s existing $9.7 billion Microsoft GPU-cloud contract signed last November.
Wall Street’s first reaction was giddy, IREN shares spiked above $72 in after-hours trading from a $56.85 close, only to give most of it back once the company reported a brutal $247.8 million net loss for the quarter. The stock settled around $58.60, still up 3 percent on the day. Bernstein analysts, undeterred, slapped a $100 price target on the name.
The deal underscores a larger shift: Bitcoin miners with stranded megawatts and cheap power have become critical middlemen between Nvidia’s silicon and the hyperscalers desperate for dedicated AI clusters. IREN’s combined commitments now top $15 billion across Microsoft and Nvidia alone. Rivals such as Hut 8, Core Scientific, and Terawulf are cutting similar nine-figure bets, turning yesterday’s crypto infrastructure into today’s AI real estate.
Whether these ex-miners can scale without drowning in losses remains the open question. For now, Nvidia has placed its $2.1 billion option on the table and is betting they can.
Original reporting: Decrypt.
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