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, as reported by the company 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.
Upon commissioning, the AI cloud contract is projected to increase IREN's annualized run-rate revenue from $3.7 billion to $4.4 billion, according to the company announcement. This expansion reinforces IREN's position as a growing player in AI infrastructure and cloud services, with the company positioning itself to capitalize on the rapidly expanding AI market demand.
Co-founder Daniel Roberts emphasized the critical importance of speed and execution in the rapidly expanding AI market, stating that securing capacity and accelerating commissioning are top priorities where time-to-compute is everything. As reported by the company, Roberts noted that their relationship with Dell ensures access to hardware at the scale and speed the market demands, highlighting the increasing demand for AI compute capacity as hyperscalers, enterprises, and developers race to secure infrastructure for next-generation AI workloads.
