NVIDIA has secured a potential $2.1 billion equity stake in data center operator IREN Limited, marking another move by the chipmaker to extend its reach beyond silicon and into the physical infrastructure powering AI workloads.
The deal, announced Wednesday, gives NVIDIA a five-year right to purchase up to 30 million IREN shares at $70 per share. It comes alongside a separate five-year, $3.4 billion AI cloud services contract under which IREN will provide managed GPU infrastructure for NVIDIA's internal AI and research workloads. The two agreements collectively position IREN as a key node in NVIDIA's expanding infrastructure network.
From Bitcoin Mines to AI Factories
IREN, formerly known as Iris Energy, built its business on renewable-powered Bitcoin mining before pivoting aggressively toward AI cloud services. The Sydney-based company, which trades on the NASDAQ, said earlier this year it would stop expanding its mining operations to focus on higher-margin compute workloads. That bet has been validated by a string of major contracts, including a $9.7 billion deal with Microsoft signed in November 2025.
The NVIDIA partnership accelerates the transition. Under the agreement, the companies will collaborate on deploying up to 5 gigawatts of AI infrastructure aligned with NVIDIA's DSX architecture, a reference design for large-scale AI factories that integrates compute, networking, power, and cooling into a unified system. Future deployments will center on IREN's 2-gigawatt Sweetwater campus in Texas, which the companies expect to serve as a flagship site for the DSX framework.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang framed the deal in characteristically broad terms. "AI factories are becoming foundational infrastructure for the global economy," he said. "Deploying these systems at scale requires deep integration across the full stack."
The Power Play
The partnership reflects a growing reality in AI infrastructure: power is the bottleneck. IREN controls a 5-gigawatt global power pipeline across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, with sites positioned in renewable-rich regions. That portfolio is precisely what hyperscalers and GPU vendors are hunting for as they race to deploy capacity faster than demand can consume it.
NVIDIA has executed similar deals with optical component suppliers Coherent, Lumentum, and Corning in recent months, securing supply chain partnerships through equity arrangements. The IREN deal extends that strategy into the physical layer of AI compute, where land, substations, and cooling systems have become as strategically important as the chips themselves.
IREN shares jumped as much as 27% in after-hours trading following the announcement before pulling back. The stock had closed at $56.85, well below the $70 exercise price on NVIDIA's purchase option. That gap gives NVIDIA upside if IREN continues to execute on its expansion plans.
What Comes Next
IREN is targeting $3.7 billion in annualized run-rate revenue by end of 2026, supported by 480 megawatts of capacity coming online this year and another 1,210 megawatts in development for 2027. The company reported $2.6 billion in cash as of late April.
The deal also includes plans to deploy NVIDIA's Blackwell GPUs at IREN's Childress, Texas facility, with ramp expected from early 2027. IREN's existing infrastructure at Childress already supports its Microsoft contract.
For NVIDIA, the investment rights structure limits downside while preserving optionality. The company can choose to exercise its purchase rights if IREN delivers, or let them expire if conditions change. For IREN, the partnership provides validation from the most powerful company in AI infrastructure and potentially opens doors to future customers looking for compute capacity at scale.
