Bitcoin mining firm IREN has announced an IREN Acquisition of Spanish-based data center construction company Nostrum Group, signaling a large expansion of its operations in Europe as part of its growth efforts in artificial intelligence cloud services.
The IREN acquisition adds to the company’s infrastructure presence globally with the acquisition of nearly 490 megawatts of power capacity from Spain, which is backed and grid-connected. In addition to this, there will also be projects currently under development and over 50 staff members employed within engineering, construction, and operations.
The IREN acquisition makes the company’s global power generation capacity rise to almost 5 gigawatts, with Spain representing nearly 10% of this total.
IREN Acquisition expands Europe AI strategy
The recent acquisition of IREN is part of the company’s overall efforts to expand its data center operation, based on artificial intelligence technology, throughout Europe. In the words of the management, Spain has an optimal combination of sustainable energy sources and excellent fiber optic connections. The Co-Founder and Co-CEO of the company, Daniel Roberts, believes that this acquisition will help the company meet the demands for AI infrastructure in the area.
Europe is also emerging as one of the fastest-growing market segments for AI Computing, and this IREN acquisition will provide the company with an early mover advantage in such a fiercely contested market environment.
This acquisition is made because many Bitcoin miners are increasingly opting to use AI architecture in order to become less dependent on mining income, which fluctuates heavily. The IREN acquisition helps achieve this by making it easier for IREN to provide AI cloud computing services through contracts.
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IREN Acquisition Drives Shift From Mining to AI
The signs are already apparent throughout the industry. Other mining companies are also moving into different areas, including companies such as HIVE Digital converting facilities in Sweden and Bitdeer building AI-powered data centers in Norway.
While mining remains the biggest contributor to IREN’s revenues, AI services are fast catching up. For example, in the quarter that ended on March 31st, the firm had made profits of $111.2 million from its mining activities versus only $33.6 million from AI services. Nevertheless, the IREN Acquisition will hasten this trend going forward.
AI revenue on the cloud grew from $17.3 million compared to the last quarter, and meanwhile, the revenue generated by Bitcoin mining went down from $167.4 million. IREN believes that part of the fall is due to the decrease in the average BTC price.
It has been analyzed that IREN will gradually decrease its dependence on mining as it builds up its AI infrastructure. IREN also stated that it has around 150,000 GPUs either installed or in its pipeline, and this may generate annual revenues of billions of dollars.
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