{"id":142946,"date":"2026-08-17T22:59:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/142946\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T22:59:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:59:54","slug":"iren-starts-first-phase-of-9-7-billion-microsoft-ai-deal-accelerating-shift-from-bitcoin-mining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/142946\/","title":{"rendered":"IREN Starts First Phase of $9.7 Billion Microsoft AI Deal, Accelerating Shift From Bitcoin Mining"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>IREN said it has completed the first delivery under its $9.7 billion AI cloud services agreement with Microsoft.<br \/>\nIREN said it will build 200 megawatts of AI cloud infrastructure using Nvidia GB300 GPUs in phases, with the remaining capacity to be delivered sequentially within this year.<br \/>\nIREN said it is shifting its business focus from Bitcoin mining to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, and plans to expand AI cloud capacity to 1.2 gigawatts (GW) by 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_feedSummaryContent-module-scss-module__B3djzW__newsAnalyticsTitle\">Forecast Trend Report by Period<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Indicator.png\" alt=\"Loading Indicator\" data-hide-on-theme=\"light\" class=\"h-full w-full object-cover\" style=\"animation:var(--animate-spin)\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Indicator-dark.png\" alt=\"Loading Indicator\" data-hide-on-theme=\"dark\" class=\"h-full w-full object-cover\" style=\"animation:var(--animate-spin)\"\/>See more mid- to long-term trend analysis<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1dd028c4-74ef-43f3-b9f5-a940b6602b79.webp\" alt=\"Photo: IREN\" width=\"646\" role=\"presentation\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Photo: IREN<\/p>\n<p>IREN, which is expanding from Bitcoin mining into AI infrastructure, has completed the first AI cloud deployment under its $9.7 billion contract with Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p>The Block reported on Aug. 17 that IREN completed the 50-megawatt Horizon 1 build-out at its data center in Childress, Texas, and began supplying capacity to Microsoft. It is the first delivery under the five-year, $9.7 billion cloud services agreement the companies signed in November 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Under the contract, IREN will build AI cloud infrastructure in four phases, from Horizon 1 through Horizon 4. The full project will provide 200 megawatts of IT capacity and use Nvidia GB300 graphics processing units. Horizon 2 through Horizon 4 are scheduled to be delivered in stages within 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Horizon 1 uses a liquid-cooling system that directly cools GPUs. IREN also said Horizon 1 has been designated an Nvidia Exemplar Cloud in recognition of its performance and reliability in handling AI workloads.<\/p>\n<p>IREN is also increasing investment in AI infrastructure tied to the Microsoft contract. In June, it raised $3.65 billion in debt financing to fund GPU purchases and related spending. At the time, the company said the financing could cover about 96% of the total $5.81 billion GPU investment linked to the Microsoft agreement.<\/p>\n<p>The company is rapidly shifting its focus from Bitcoin mining, once its core business, to AI and high-performance computing infrastructure. It plans to expand AI cloud capacity to 480 megawatts this year and to 1.2 gigawatts by 2027.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Horizon 1 demonstrates the strength of our vertically integrated business model and our ability to deliver complex AI infrastructure projects quickly and at scale,&#8221; Daniel Roberts, IREN&#8217;s co-founder and co-chief executive officer, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IREN said it has completed the first delivery under its $9.7 billion AI cloud services agreement with Microsoft.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[420,7829,8263,8257,3278,8255,8256,8262,8261,8259,8258,8260,3277,4637,320,7828,7966],"class_list":["post-142946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-microsoft","tag-azure","tag-azure-ai","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitcoincommunity","tag-blockchain","tag-bloomingbit","tag-coincommunity","tag-coininfo","tag-coininvest","tag-coinnews","tag-coinreview","tag-coinstats","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-ethereum","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-ai","tag-solana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}