辉达合作伙伴 Iren 的共同执行长 Daniel Roberts 指出，全球算力供应不太可能赶上人工智慧的庞大需求，并称这波资料中心建设周期与以往完全不同。高盛预计到 2030 年美国资料中心容量将达到约 125GW，而随著 AI 代理的发展与运算时间缩短，新上线的算力只会诱发倍数的额外需求，同时电力限制与地方社区对水电消耗的抗议等实体门槛，也对产能过剩形成了天然限制。
Iren 原名 Iris Energy，早年为比特币矿商并曾面临贷款违约危机，如今成功转型为辉达重要的「新兴云端」合作伙伴，市值自 2022 年底的低点飙升至约 170 亿美元。不同于其他仰赖长期租赁协议以换取廉价债务的竞争对手，Iren 选择完整拥有土地、建筑、硬体到软体的整套架构，借此直接受惠于算力价格上涨，但这也伴随著大规模增资稀释股权，以及高额债务、客户集中度高与晶片折旧快速等潜在风险。
为支撑高达 300 亿美元的 AI 基础设施扩建计划，Iren 过去一年筹集约 190 亿美元资金，主要用于采购辉达处理器及兴建资料中心。辉达在其中扮演关键角色，不仅作为供应商与客户，更签署了 34 亿美元的租赁合约并取得认股权，将自身利益与 Iren 接收多达 60 万颗晶片的进度深度绑定；尽管外界质疑这类循环融资模式，Roberts 则认为辉达正策略性运用其资产负债表来推动整个 AI 生态圈的成长。
Daniel Roberts, co-founder and co-CEO of Nvidia partner Iren, stated that global computing power supply is unlikely ever to catch up with soaring AI demand, describing the current data centre expansion as fundamentally distinct from past investment cycles. With Goldman Sachs projecting US data centre capacity to reach around 125GW by 2030, the rapid proliferation of AI agents and faster processing speeds continuously trigger multiplier increases in demand, while physical, social, and political constraints around power availability naturally check oversupply.
Originally founded as the cryptocurrency miner Iris Energy, Iren overcame loan defaults to become a prominent Nvidia-backed neocloud partner, seeing its market valuation surge from approximately $60 million in late 2022 to roughly $17 billion today. Unlike rivals that rely on long-term leases to secure hyperscaler tenants and cheap financing, Iren owns the entire technology stack from land to software, enabling it to capitalize on surging compute prices despite the heavy dilution from share issuances and the risks associated with substantial debt and rapidly depreciating processors.
To fund its ambitious expansion plans of spending up to $30 billion on infrastructure, Iren secured roughly $19 billion over the past year through convertible notes, chip-backed debt, equity, and customer prepayments to acquire Nvidia chips and build new facilities. Nvidia plays a pivotal role as a primary hardware supplier, major customer, and potential equity holder through a multi-billion-dollar capacity and warrant agreement, which Roberts defended against circular-financing criticisms by arguing that Nvidia is strategically leveraging its balance sheet to accelerate the broader AI ecosystem. (Key numbers: 300, 190, 34, 60)