NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) receives a $2.1 billion investment and a $3.4 billion AI cloud computing contract! IREN (IREN.US) surged after-hours in response.

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) will invest up to $2.1 billion in data center developer IREN (IREN.US), as part of a broader collaboration aimed at accelerating the construction of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The two companies stated in a joint statement on Thursday that IREN has agreed to grant NVIDIA Corporation the right to purchase up to 30 million shares of stock at a strike price of $70 per share within five years. They will also collaborate to deploy compute capacity worth billions of dollars. As part of the collaboration, IREN announced a $3.4 billion AI cloud computing contract with NVIDIA Corporation for purchasing and deploying NVIDIA Corporation's Blackwell processors. The two companies plan to gradually increase NVIDIA Corporation's infrastructure to a maximum of 5 gigawatts in the future. The statement also mentioned that NVIDIA Corporation and IREN plan to jointly deploy large-scale data centers, using NVIDIA Corporation's equipment and IREN's expertise in acquiring land, power, and other construction elements to advance project construction. Meanwhile, IREN announced on Thursday that the company has agreed to acquire Spanish-based data center developer Ingenostrum (Nostrum Group) as part of its expansion plans in the European AI cloud infrastructure market. The company stated that the acquisition will add approximately 490 megawatts of confirmed grid power capacity in Spain, and expand its total power reserve to 5 gigawatts. IREN mentioned that the transaction will also add a development pipeline and a local team covering development, engineering, construction, and operations. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. IREN stated that the acquisition of Nostrum is subject to customary closing conditions. IREN originally focused on Bitcoin mining before transitioning to AI compute business. The company, formerly known as Iris Energy, saw a 285% surge in its stock price last year and has risen by 51% since 2026. Last year, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) signed a $9.7 billion agreement with IREN to purchase its AI compute capacity. As of the time of writing, IREN's stock surged nearly 10% in after-hours trading on Thursday. It is worth mentioning that NVIDIA Corporation also invested in IREN's competitors, such as CoreWeave (CRWV.US) and Nebius (NBIS.US). Such intense transactions have drawn some criticism, with claims of "circular investments", as NVIDIA Corporation is supporting companies that buy its chips. NVIDIA Corporation CEO Jensen Huang has refuted these claims. He stated in January, when discussing the investment in CoreWeave, "It's just a tiny piece of what they need to raise in the end. To call it circular investment is absurd."