I think we’re going to see a lot of stranded compute in partially complete data centers

IREN is advancing sovereign AI in Europe, bringing together its European data center capacity and managed cloud services for customers seeking more choice over where their AI workloads run and how their data and infrastructure are managed. Announced today at NVIDIA GTC Berlin, IREN has established IREN Europe and appointed Ángel Corcóstegui as Chair of the newly established board of directors. IREN also secured the civil works license for its planned 300MW campus in Badajoz, Spain. Following the completion of its acquisition of Mirantis, IREN’s software capabilities include workload isolation and operational controls that can help customers address data residency, security and governance requirements. Read more: iren.gcs-web.com/static-file…

A lot of questions this week on funding, so here's how a GPU typically gets funded at $IREN. First, the customer signs a multi-year take-or-pay contract and agrees to a prepayment. On our recent 3-year contracts, prepayments have been 45% to 55% of the associated GPU capex. Second, financing is committed, secured by the contracted GPUs. On the Microsoft contract we secured an A-rated facility at around 6%, which together with prepayments covers 96% of GPU capex. More recently, for a non-investment grade counterparty at Mackenzie, we secured financing at 9% fixed, which together with prepayments covers more than the full cost of the GPUs. That's the GPU side. The data centers are a separate, long-term asset base, and we own the ones our GPUs run in. Construction has been funded from cash to date, with no debt against these multi-billion dollar assets. As they come online with contracted customers, they can support financing in their own right. The processes behind the next facilities are continuing, and new paper will cost what the market charges. With GPU paybacks of around two years on our recent 3-year contracts, a wider spread barely moves the economics. There's more customer demand than we can build for. As we noted at our recent earnings, 2026 is largely sold out, recent 3-year contracts are at more than double the prior year's pricing, and demand for anything we can bring online in 2027 covers it several times over, with prepayments a focus in every negotiation. Conversations on 2028 capacity are already underway. Meanwhile announced capacity keeps slipping across the industry, which is the point: signing deals isn't the bottleneck in this market, bringing GPUs online is, and that's our focus.

Goldman's CommTech conference, San Francisco. 48 hours of @IREN_Ltd investor meetings, and the mood has shifted meaningfully. Key takeaways:

I stand by these statements: “Everybody's going to have to get into the land power shell game and get your own electricity, and everybody's going to have to solve this. I actually think every company should probably break the seal and understand the energy shortage and think about buying LPS themselves. I do not think you're going to be able to rely on the clouds.”

Today, IREN shared early plans for Redbank, a proposed data centre campus near Wagga Wagga in regional New South Wales, with the local community. Redbank is in the early assessment phase. IREN is working toward a grid connection, and the project is not included in our announced 5GW secured-power portfolio. We’re speaking about it now to provide local residents with information on the proposal before we lodge a scoping report - the first step in the NSW planning approval process. Redbank has the potential to create local jobs and economic stimulus as well as community benefits for the Wagga Wagga area. dailyadvertiser.com.au/story…