This move reflects broader industry trends towards investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. As demand for AI services continues to skyrocket, tech giants like Microsoft are scrambling to secure sufficient compute capacity to meet customer needs. The recent $9.7 billion, five-year contract between Microsoft and Australia’s IREN is a prime example of this trend. By partnering with IREN, Microsoft will gain access to compute infrastructure powered by Nvidia’s GB300 GPUs, which will be deployed in phases through 2026 at IREN’s facility in Childress, Texas.
The deal is expected to support 750 megawatts of capacity, with IREN separately investing $5.8 billion in GPUs and equipment from Dell. This significant investment underscores the shift in focus from bitcoin mining to AI workloads, a move that has benefited companies like IREN and CoreWeave. As IREN’s CEO Daniel Roberts noted, the Microsoft deal will only occupy 10% of the company’s total capacity, generating approximately $1.94 billion in annualized revenue.
Microsoft’s aggressive expansion of its AI cloud capacity is not an isolated incident. Last month, the company launched its first production cluster with Nvidia’s GB300 NVL72 systems for Azure, optimized for reasoning models, agentic AI systems, and multi-modal generative AI. Additionally, Microsoft signed a deal with Nscale for approximately 200,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs to be deployed across three data centers in Europe and one in the U.S. As the AI landscape continues to evolve, strategic partnerships and investments like these will be crucial for companies looking to stay ahead of the curve.
Source: Official Link