In another major step toward expanding its artificial intelligence infrastructure, Microsoft has inked a $9.7 billion, five-year deal with Australia’s IREN to secure large-scale AI cloud capacity. The agreement will provide Microsoft access to cutting-edge compute infrastructure powered by Nvidia’s GB300 GPUs, significantly strengthening its ability to meet the surging demand for AI services across Azure and enterprise clients.
Under the deal, IREN will deploy GPU infrastructure in multiple phases through 2026 at its Childress, Texas facility, which is designed to support up to 750 megawatts of compute capacity. The collaboration marks one of the largest AI-focused cloud contracts between a major tech company and an infrastructure provider, positioning Microsoft to stay ahead in the global race for AI dominance.
IREN, once known for its bitcoin-mining operations, has successfully transitioned into a high-performance computing company focused on AI workloads. The company said it is separately purchasing GPUs and related equipment from Dell worth $5.8 billion, further bolstering its infrastructure. With the Microsoft deal alone expected to generate around $1.94 billion in annualized revenue, IREN’s pivot from crypto mining to AI infrastructure is paying off handsomely.
This move comes on the heels of Microsoft’s continued push to scale its AI capabilities following its deep integration of OpenAI technologies across its ecosystem. Just last month, Microsoft launched its first production cluster featuring Nvidia’s GB300 NVL72 systems for Azure. These systems are specifically optimized for reasoning models, multi-modal generative AI, and agentic AI systems, ensuring faster and more efficient processing for complex AI workloads.
Additionally, Microsoft recently secured another major deal with Nscale, involving approximately 200,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs distributed across three data centers in Europe and one in the U.S. These investments highlight Microsoft’s aggressive approach to building the world’s most advanced AI cloud infrastructure a necessity as demand for generative AI, digital assistants, and intelligent automation tools skyrockets globally.
For IREN, this partnership cements its position among elite infrastructure providers like CoreWeave, who also transitioned from crypto mining to AI compute services. The company’s ability to handle massive-scale GPU clusters has made it a key player in the rapidly growing AI infrastructure ecosystem.
Analysts view Microsoft’s latest investment as part of a broader strategy to diversify its supply chain for GPU capacity, ensuring reliability and scalability amid fierce competition from Amazon, Google, and Oracle. As AI systems become more compute-intensive, securing access to advanced chips and energy-efficient data centers is becoming a strategic necessity rather than an option.
With this $9.7 billion deal, Microsoft strengthens its foundation for the next wave of AI innovation one that depends not just on smarter models, but also on the immense computing power that fuels them.
