Microsoft rents $9.7B from IREN

Microsoft signed a five-year contract worth about $9.7 billion for AI cloud capacity from IREN, the data-center operator formerly known for bitcoin mining. (iren.com) (reuters.com) IREN said the agreement was announced on November 3, 2025, and covers access to Nvidia GB300 graphics processors over a five-year term. The contract includes a 20% prepayment from Microsoft. (iren.com) The hardware is slated for phased deployment through 2026 at IREN’s 750-megawatt campus in Childress, Texas. IREN said the four “Horizon” facilities there will support about 200 megawatts of critical information-technology load. (iren.com) IREN paired the Microsoft contract with a separate agreement to buy about $5.8 billion of GPUs and related equipment from Dell Technologies. Reuters reported that Dell shares rose about 1% after the announcement. (iren.com) (reuters.com) The structure shows how Microsoft is adding computing power without waiting to build every data center itself. Reuters said the arrangement lets Microsoft expand capacity without taking on all the upfront spending and chip depreciation directly. (reuters.com) That approach was already visible in another contract Microsoft signed on September 8, 2025, with Nebius Group. Nebius said that multi-year deal would deliver dedicated capacity from its new data center in Vineland, New Jersey. (nebius.com) (finance.yahoo.com) Reuters reported the Nebius contract was worth about $17.4 billion over five years, and Nebius said it would use the deal’s cash flow and debt secured against the contract to finance expansion. (finance.yahoo.com) (nebius.com) Microsoft added another supplier the same day as IREN’s announcement, when Lambda disclosed a separate multibillion-dollar agreement to deploy tens of thousands of Nvidia GPUs, including GB300 NVL72 systems. (lambda.ai) (cnbc.com) The rush for outside capacity followed warnings from large technology companies that power, chips and data-center space were constraining AI growth. Reuters said IREN shares jumped as much as 24.7% after the Microsoft deal was disclosed. (reuters.com) For IREN, the Microsoft contract turns a Texas build-out into committed revenue through 2031. For Microsoft, it is another bet that renting AI infrastructure can be faster than waiting for the grid, concrete and chips to catch up. (stocktitan.net) (reuters.com)