London — Wednesday, 8 October 2025. Bitcoin-miner-turned-AI-infrastructure provider IREN (Nasdaq: IREN) has signed fresh multi-year AI cloud service contracts with leading artificial-intelligence companies to deploy Nvidia Blackwell-class GPUs, accelerating its pivot from pure crypto mining to high-margin compute. The company said it remains on track to exceed US$500m in annualised run-rate revenue (ARR) by the end of Q1 2026 from ~23,000 GPUs that are either operating or on order.
Contracts now cover roughly 11,000 GPUs, underpinning ~US$225m ARR by end-2025, with new agreements being struck ahead of deliveries. IREN said its average contract term is about two years, with a ~two-year revenue payback at current pricing — a framework the company argues balances customer flexibility with capital returns as Blackwell capacity ramps.
Scaling the “AI factory” footprint
IREN is concentrating growth at its British Columbia campuses and Horizon 1 & 2 data centres in Childress, Texas — sites the company says can host more than 100,000 GPUs as power and land are built out across its portfolio. Management highlights a secured power and land bank of ~2,910MW to support that expansion, and has emphasised the speed of its ASIC-to-GPU transition as a competitive advantage.
Although the firm did not disclose counterparties for the latest wins, it framed the signings as evidence of durable enterprise demand for on-prem/colocation-style AI cloud capacity, where customers contract for dedicated GPU fleets rather than elastic, usage-billed compute. Industry-wide, allocations of Nvidia’s Blackwell platform have been tightly controlled, favouring operators that can bring power, cooling and physical space online quickly — a constraint that has allowed several former bitcoin miners to monetise their energy footprints as “AI factories.”
Market reaction: miners with AI optionality pop
The update extended a powerful run across AI/HPC-exposed mining names. IREN jumped after the announcement, while Bitfarms (BITF) and Hive Digital (HIVE) added to Monday’s double-digit gains amid broad strength in GPU and cloud-infrastructure plays. Momentum carried into Tuesday/Wednesday trade, with sector coverage noting continued follow-through as investors rotated into miners advertising near-term AI cash-flow visibility.
What to watch
- Contract coverage vs deliveries: The gap between the 23k-GPU footprint and the 11k already contracted is the key lever for ARR progression in 2026. Watch quarterly updates on conversion from MoUs/LOIs to binding offtake.
- Build schedules at Horizon 1 & 2 / BC: Timelines for power energisation, racks, and network integration will determine when Blackwell clusters turn revenue-generative.
- Pricing durability: Two-year average terms and two-year payback look attractive in today’s supply-constrained market; any easing in GPU scarcity or hyperscaler pricing could compress spreads.
With signed deals now anchoring a material slice of its 2025–26 plan, IREN has positioned itself as one of the clearest public-market plays on dedicated Blackwell capacity — and a bellwether for how quickly the crypto mining cohort can rebadge stranded power into productised AI compute.