IREN this company is crazy: selling mining machines, buying GPUs, stock price up 16%

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Author: Heart of Computing Power

On May 8th, after IREN’s financial report was released, the stock price soared by 16% in the morning.

Not because Bitcoin went up.

Quite the opposite, it’s because they are personally dismantling their mining farms.

5800 Bitmain S21 Pro miners were taken off the racks and labeled “For Sale.”

$140 million in impairments, clearly written into the financial report.

Two years ago, mining machines were still hard currency, with a 30% premium in the secondhand market.

Now, selling at scrap iron prices, the capital market is actually applauding.

1. 5800 Miners Removed, $140 Million Impairment Recorded

On May 8th, IREN published a set of eye-catching data.

IREN Limited released quarterly results as of March 31.

Bitcoin mining revenue was $111.2 million, down year-over-year.

AI cloud service revenue was $33.6 million, up year-over-year.

All 5800 main miners, Bitmain S21 Pro models, were fully taken down and listed as assets for sale, resulting in a $140 million asset impairment and a $2 million impairment loss.

Compared to the book value of the previous quarter, this impairment reduced assets by nearly 40%.

In other words, if these machines are sold at secondhand market prices, buyers still find them expensive and want a discount.

The official financial report explicitly states that a re-evaluation of the remaining mining facilities will be conducted.

But the report also quietly included a $3.4 billion Nvidia contract.

Compared to the loss from selling old miners, even the initial payment of the new contract is less than that.

Meanwhile, IREN’s Bitcoin holdings are zero; all mined coins are sold on the same day they are mined.

A Bitcoin mining company, dismantling its own machines, recording billions in impairments, and not holding a single coin.

Yet, on the day the report was released, IREN’s stock price rose 16% in the morning.

They just dismantled their printing press, and the market rewarded them.

But selling old assets cheaply—what if AI orders dry up?

2. Filling the Gap with 5GW of Power

The space freed up by old miners is never idle for a minute.

Contracts with giants have provided IREN with security.

On May 7th, the day before the financial report, IREN announced a five-year partnership agreement with Nvidia, totaling $3.4 billion.

Nvidia also committed to subscribing to IREN’s equity with up to $2.1 billion.

The goal is to jointly build 5GW of HGX standard AI infrastructure worldwide.

To handle massive computing power, on the same day, IREN made two acquisitions.

One was Spanish data center developer Nostrum, acquiring 490 MW of European capacity.

The other was spending $625 million in stock to buy cloud infrastructure software company Mirantis, filling out their software stack.

Within a day, hardware got Nvidia’s backing, Europe gained a foothold, and software capabilities were completed.

Looking further back, IREN also holds a five-year, $9.7 billion GPU cloud service contract with Microsoft.

To deliver this order, they just signed a $3.5 billion GPU procurement deal with Dell in March.

Adding up, Nvidia’s $3.4 billion and Microsoft’s $9.7 billion contracts alone total $13.1 billion.

But spending money freely also requires replenishment.

To this end, JPMorgan Chase even took the lead, offering a $3.6 billion credit line. The reason capital dares to lend so much is because IREN has $2.6 billion in cash on hand and has also launched a $6 billion ATM equity financing plan, raising $380 million just in Q1 through stock sales.

And some of this money comes from their mining sales strategy.

Industry data shows that IREN sells all Bitcoin daily without fail; their crypto holdings are strictly kept at zero.

They are dismantling their printing presses while not holding even half a Bitcoin.

During the earnings call, IREN’s management set a target: by the end of 2026, 480 MW of AI capacity, 150k GPUs online, and $3.7 billion in annual recurring revenue.

A company that relied on mining machines just twenty months ago is now signing AI contracts worth hundreds of billions, holding Nvidia equity, and aiming for nearly $4 billion in annual revenue.

But if even the miners themselves don’t bet on Bitcoin’s future, who is actually taking over this game?

3. Not Just IREN, Miners Are Turning to Scrap Iron

In fact, IREN is not the only one taking action.

Riot Platforms’ leadership team has undergone changes, shifting strategy toward AI computing power.

MARA Holdings publicly bets on AI business lines.

Hut 8 secured a government data center contract, and its stock price rose accordingly.

The entire North American Bitcoin mining industry is experiencing a similar tearing apart: miners are devaluing, GPUs are appreciating, infrastructure like power and land remain unchanged, but what runs on them has completely shifted.

Currently, the path of miner transformation only differs in how far they go.

Most choose to pursue “mining + AI” dual tracks, maintaining mining capacity while exploring AI business.

But IREN took a different route: dismantling 5800 miners, recording $140 million in impairments, holding no Bitcoin, and signing $13.1 billion worth of AI contracts.

They chose to cut one leg entirely and replace it with a rocket booster, with no turning back.

During the earnings call, IREN’s management said that the AI computing power market is “extremely short of supply, with almost no idle GPUs.”

This sounds like industry consensus, but upon reflection, it’s quite ironic—because Bitcoin mining was once described the same way.

“Computing power is power,” “Electricity is a moat,” “Mining machines are printing presses.”

Each of these was once a truth, until it wasn’t.

Computing power has never been loyal to any narrative; it only follows the highest bid for returns.