IREN has delivered the first of four planned 'Horizon' cloud platforms for AI deployment to Microsoft, marking the completion of the first milestone in the five-year, $9.7 billion contract that underpins the former Bitcoin miner's shift to AI infrastructure.
The Horizon 1 module is located at IREN's facility in Childress, Texas. It is reported to be a 50-megawatt facility featuring direct-to-chip liquid cooling and Nvidia GB300 systems. This is the first of four such facilities the company plans to complete by 2026, with all four together expected to provide a total capacity of 200 megawatts.
Nvidia has also designated this data center as an 'Exemplar Cloud,' a status granted to cloud providers that meet Nvidia's performance and reliability standards for AI workloads. "The delivery of Horizon 1 underscores the power of our vertically integrated business model and our ability to execute complex AI infrastructure projects rapidly and at scale," said Daniel Roberts, Co-founder and Co-CEO of IREN, in a statement.
Why is Microsoft's Validation More Significant?
Completing the build was only half the test. According to the agreement, Microsoft has five days to verify each GPU installation against mutually accepted standards. Upon completing this verification process, a service period begins, and IREN starts charging Microsoft monthly.
The key aspect is billing. In November 2025, IREN signed a cloud services agreement with Microsoft, which will provide the company with approximately $1.94 billion in annual revenue from the deal once all four Horizon modules are operational. Microsoft is required to pay 20% of the total contract value upfront in four tranches.
IREN's Shift to AI Brings It Closer to $4 Billion Revenue Target
The scale of the change is illustrated by IREN's financial reports. The company listed on Nasdaq in 2021 as a Bitcoin miner. In the first nine months of 2022, it generated $511.5 million in revenue from mining, while earning only $58.3 million from its AI Cloud service. According to management, the company aims to reach over $4 billion in annual revenue from its AI Cloud business by year-end, with more than 85% of that revenue secured by the contract.
The presented timeline reflects the state of IREN's core business operations. In mid-August, the Bitcoin price hovered around $63,500, less than half its peak in October 2025. IREN stated it plans to have 480 megawatts of AI cloud computing capacity by 2026 and 1.2 gigawatts by 2027, while phasing out mining.
This expansion is estimated to require about $5.8 billion for purchasing GPUs and related equipment from Dell. IREN has secured financing for nearly all of this expansion. According to The Block, this includes $3.65 billion in secured debt raised in June and guaranteed by the Microsoft deal, covering 96% of the $5.81 billion needed for GPU purchases. IREN holds an investment-grade rating of A from Fitch and A(low) from DBRS.
