Microsoft signs $9.7B AI compute deal with IREN

Microsoft has signed a five year, $9.7 billion agreement with Australian data center operator IREN to secure additional AI cloud capacity, the companies said on Monday, giving Microsoft access to Nvidia GB300 graphics processing units hosted at IREN’s Childress, Texas campus. The contract is intended to help Microsoft address a global shortage of high-performance AI chips and expand capacity for Azure AI services without immediately building new data centers.

Under the deal Microsoft will make a 20 percent prepayment that IREN said will be credited back to Microsoft during years three through five of the contract. IREN separately agreed to buy about $5.8 billion of GPUs and ancillary hardware from Dell Technologies for deployment at Childress. The processors are expected to be installed in phases through 2026 at a campus IREN has described as capable of supporting up to 750 megawatts, with new liquid-cooled halls designed to deliver roughly 200 megawatts of critical IT capacity.

IREN said the Microsoft contract will occupy about 10 percent of its total capacity and generate about $1.9 billion in annualized revenue. The company plans to fund the required capital expenditures...