Microsoft signs a $9.7 billion deal with IREN to strengthen artificial intelligence: what is known
3 November 18:29
The American corporation Microsoft has signed a five-year, $9.7 billion deal with data center operator IREN that will provide the company with access to advanced Nvidia chips and additional computing power for the development of artificial intelligence.
According toReuters, after the announcement of the deal, IREN shares jumped more than 20% in pre-market trading on Monday, November 3, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports .
Why does Microsoft need it?
The partnership with IREN will help Microsoft expand its data processing capabilities without building new data centers, which is one of the main bottlenecks in the competition between tech giants for AI model training capacity.
Thanks to this deal, Microsoft will receive Nvidia GB300 chips and other equipment supplied by Dell, with the total cost of this part of the project amounting to about $5.8 billion.
Race for computing resources
Demand for powerful data centers has skyrocketed after the explosive development of ChatGPT and other generative systems.
Companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are actively investing in GPU clusters, as they determine the speed and quality of training artificial intelligence models.
For Microsoft, this deal is part of a large-scale strategy to expand its Azure cloud business, which provides the basis for OpenAI.
Who is IREN?
It is this “green” profile that makes IREN an attractive partner for Microsoft, which declares a goal to become carbon neutral by 2030.
IREN is a data center operator with a market value of more than $16.5 billion after a six-fold increase in shares in 2024.
The company operates several facilities across North America with a total capacity of 2,910 megawatts, all of which are powered by renewable energy.
Market reaction
- IREN shares rose by more than 20%,
- Dell – by 5%,
- while Microsoft itself has maintained a stable position after a recent market record worth more than $4 trillion.
Analysts note that the deal shows: Microsoft is trying not only to catch up but also to overtake Nvidia in the race for dominance in the artificial intelligence market, providing itself with direct access to the most powerful computing technologies.
