Nvidia to invest up to $2.1 billion in IREN as part of AI data center deal

Nvidia will invest up to $2.1 billion in data centre operator IREN, as part of a broader deal to deploy up to 5 gigawatts of infrastructure to keep up with soaring artificial intelligence demand.

The tie-up, announced on Thursday, underscores the hunger for computing power amid surging adoption of AI, as frontier model developers and Big Tech firms funnel billions to secure capacity.

Shares of IREN were up around 9% in extended trading. The stock had closed at $56.85 in regular hours.

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IREN has issued to Nvidia a five-year right to buy up to 30 million shares at an exercise price of $70 per share. All four US tech giants reported results last week and signalled AI spending would not slow, with combined outlays set to surpass $700 billion this year.

Thursday's partnership is intended to accelerate the deployment of large-scale AI factories by combining Nvidia's factory architecture with IREN's infrastructure operations, the companies said. Future deployments are expected to focus on IREN's 2-gigawatt Sweetwater campus in Texas.

IREN last year signed a $9.7 billion cloud deal with Microsoft.

The company is a so-called "neocloud" - firms that sell cloud computing services built on Nvidia's processors that allow Big Tech to access computing power without building new data centres.