IREN bounces back from Bitcoin slump with $9.7B Microsoft AI deal

IREN moved from near collapse to a massive $9.7 billion agreement with Microsoft, according to Bloomberg.

The company was founded by Daniel Roberts and Will Roberts, two former Macquarie Group bankers who took the firm public in November 2021 during the peak of the pandemic-driven crypto rush.

When the Bitcoin market crashed the next year, the company’s shares fell 96%, leaving the brothers with almost nothing as the value of their stock dropped to the floor.

Eighteen months ago, Daniel and Will changed direction. They stopped depending on Bitcoin mining and redirected the business to meet demand for AI computing and data centers.

That decision changed everything. Shares of IREN, which was originally named Iris Energy, have risen more than 500% this year. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index now lists Daniel, age 41, and Will, age 35, with a combined net worth of $846 million for the first time.

Microsoft signs long-term capacity contract

The deal with Microsoft runs for five years and makes the tech giant the largest customer of IREN. The agreement gives Microsoft access to 10% of the company’s total computing capacity.

That means IREN still has most of its platform available to secure more contracts and raise more revenue. The company owns data centers in Canada and the United States, and those facilities run on renewable energy.

Daniel said about completing the agreement, “It’s been a big weekend and it’s fantastic to knock it off. But the reality here is, it’s back into the office, we’ve still got a big job to do.”

IREN now operates in the same space as other AI computing providers such as CoreWeave, Nebius Group, and Crusoe. All of these companies once focused on Bitcoin mining and later moved to serving the demand for compute power from AI firms including OpenAI.

Guojun He, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, said the agreement represents a turning point for the company’s identity. He said the brothers are now viewed more as builders of AI infrastructure than founders of a crypto venture.

From Bitcoin mining to AI compute infrastructure

For Daniel, moving from Bitcoin to AI was not random. He explained that both require huge amounts of physical data center space and steady power. He said the shift followed the same logic that led them to start mining in the first place.

In early investor meetings, Daniel said they talked about films like The Matrix, Ready Player One, and Wreck-It Ralph to describe how more of everyday life is moving into digital environments.

The message was that the world would need more compute, and demand would not slow down.

The brothers grew up in Sydney and studied business at the University of Technology Sydney before working at Macquarie Group. Will was a vice president in the commodities and markets division, where he helped create the bank’s crypto team.

Daniel became an executive director at Palisade Investment Partners, working with infrastructure funds. Daniel first got into Bitcoin around 2013, and the company website says he “bought high and sold low.”

That experience, combined with the brothers’ background in financing and building infrastructure, led them to launch the company in 2018.

“Bitcoin was a great way to monetize the compute and the data center platform,” Daniel said. “We did that for a number of years and like we always said, as soon as higher and better value use cases come along, we swapped it out.”

Today, IREN has become part of the expanding AI computing race. The brothers’ strategy now centers on securing long-term clients and scaling the infrastructure platform. IREN remains positioned to negotiate additional contracts. For now, Microsoft remains the largest buyer.

Meanwhile, the company’s operations stay anchored in Canada and the United States, with continued use of renewable energy to power every facility. The reshaped business keeps the structure that began in mining, but now applies it to AI.

Daniel and Will share management of IREN and continue reviewing decisions together. Daniel said, “We challenge each other, we analyze things to the nth degree, and we’re not afraid to say that if we’re wrong, we’re wrong. Let’s change what we’re doing.”

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