IREN to Pause Bitcoin Hashrate Expansion at 52 EH/s to Focus on AI Cloud Growth

Iris Energy (IREN) is halting further expansion of its Bitcoin mining operations upon reaching a capacity of 52 EH/s, as the company pivots its strategic focus toward AI cloud and data center services.

On Monday, IREN announced that its installed Bitcoin mining capacity increased from 31 EH/s to 35 EH/s as of March 31, following the energization of Childress Phase 4. The company aims to reach 50 EH/s in the coming months.

Upon hitting 52 EH/s, IREN plans to pause additional mining expansion to prioritize its AI cloud services business, which currently operates 1,896 GPUs, including NVIDIA H100 and H200 models. As of March, IREN claimed that this segment is generating an annualized run-rate revenue of $26 million. During the fourth quarter of 2024, IREN reported an AI cloud service revenue of $2.66 million.

Separately, IREN said it is developing “Horizon 1,” an AI data center with an expected IT load of 50 megawatts (MW), and the capital expenditures are projected to be between $300 million and $350 million. The company expects to fund the project primarily through colocation customer prepayments and debt financing.

“As we near completion of our 50 EH/s mining expansion, our focus is shifting to the next phase of growth and delivering scalable infrastructure for AI and HPC through our AI Cloud Services and AI Data Center businesses,” said Daniel Roberts, IREN Co-Founder and Co-CEO.

IREN is the latest publicly traded Bitcoin miner to recalibrate its growth strategy by tapping into the booming AI and high-performance computing (HPC) market. On Monday, its peer Hut 8 announced the formation of a new mining subsidiary backed by external investors, including the sons of U.S. President Donald Trump, and plans to transfer its ASIC mining fleet to the spin-off entity.

Earlier this year, Riot Platforms also paused a planned 600 MW hashrate expansion in Texas, reserving that capacity for potential AI and HPC hosting opportunities.

During the fourth quarter, IREN raised $145 million in equity and $311 million in debt financing and has since brought in an additional $111 million through its at-the-market stock offering program.