Bitcoin miner-turned-AI infrastructure provider IREN has completed the first of four planned Horizon AI cloud deployments for Microsoft under a five-year, $9.7 billion contract. The Horizon 1 facility, a 50-megawatt liquid-cooled data centre in Texas, marks the start of IREN’s expansion to 200 megawatts of IT capacity by 2027, utilising Nvidia GB300 GPUs.
The deployment follows IREN’s securing of a $3.65 billion debt package in June, covering 96% of its $5.81 billion GPU spending. Fitch and DBRS have assigned investment-grade ratings of A and A(low) respectively to the debt, reflecting confidence in IREN’s financial structure.
IREN aims to scale to 480 megawatts of AI cloud capacity by 2026 and 1.2 gigawatts by 2027. The company’s co-founder and co-CEO, Daniel Roberts, highlighted the “vertically integrated model” as key to executing large-scale AI infrastructure projects.
Shares in IREN rose 2.6% to $45.22 on Monday, though year-to-date gains remain below 6%. The Horizon 1 facility has been designated as an Exemplar Cloud site by Nvidia, underscoring its role in advancing AI computing standards.
Written by James Tobias
Bitcoin Desk
