IREN signs $1.6bn Dell agreement to expand AI cloud capacity

IREN shares rose 4% in pre-market trading after the company entered a $1.6 billion purchase agreement with Dell Technologies for air-cooled Blackwell systems, a major step in scaling its artificial intelligence infrastructure, the company said on Wednesday.

The new systems will support IREN’s previously announced five-year, $3.4 billion managed services AI cloud contract and are expected to be deployed across the company’s existing data centers in Childress, Texas. Commissioning is targeted for early 2027.

Once operational, the AI cloud contract is projected to increase IREN’s annualized run-rate revenue from $3.7 billion to $4.4 billion, reinforcing the company’s position as a growing player in AI infrastructure and cloud services.

Co-founder Daniel Roberts said speed and execution remain critical in the rapidly expanding AI market.

“Securing capacity and accelerating commissioning are our top priorities in a market where time-to-compute is everything,” Roberts said. “Our relationship with Dell ensures access to hardware at the scale and speed the market demands.”

The agreement highlights increasing demand for AI compute capacity as hyperscalers, enterprises, and developers race to secure infrastructure for next-generation AI workloads.

Read More: IREN co-founder says AI’s biggest bottleneck is infrastructure, not chips