What happened
Microsoft secured a five-year, approximately $9.7 billion agreement for AI cloud capacity from IREN, granting access to Nvidia GB300 accelerator systems located in Texas. This deal utilises about 10% of IREN's total capacity, with Microsoft providing a 20% prepayment. Concurrently, IREN committed $5.8 billion to Dell Technologies for GPU and equipment purchases, deploying these in phases through 2026 at its Childress, Texas campus, supporting 200MW of IT load.
Why it matters
This five-year, $9.7 billion commitment introduces a significant operational dependency for Microsoft on IREN's infrastructure delivery and management capabilities, specifically for Nvidia GB300 systems in Texas. The 20% prepayment and long-term contract reduce Microsoft's flexibility in sourcing AI compute capacity and increase financial exposure to a single vendor's operational performance and capital expenditure funding. This raises due diligence requirements for procurement, IT operations, and vendor management teams regarding IREN's ongoing service delivery and supply chain resilience.
