IREN Secures $3.63 Billion Funding to Shift Focus from Bitcoin Mining to AI Infrastructure

IREN Aktie: Ausgezeichnete Leistungen!

The Bitcoin miner and AI infrastructure provider IREN is set to complete a significant capital increase of $3.63 billion on December 8. This funding round is one of the largest in the industry and will directly support the expansion of infrastructure for a $9.7 billion partnership with Microsoft.

The financing consists of two components: $2.0 billion in convertible bonds and $1.63 billion from a capital increase. The convertible bonds are divided into two tranches: $1.0 billion with 0.25% interest, maturing in 2032, and $1.0 billion with 1.00% interest, maturing in 2033, with a conversion premium of approximately 25%, equating to an initial conversion price of about $51.40.

"The low interest rates of the convertible bonds indicate high institutional confidence in IREN's creditworthiness, despite the massive volume."

IREN's stock closed at €38.30 on Friday, following a period of significant pressure. The stock traded volatile this week, reaching a low of around $40.83 on Tuesday before consolidating around $44 by Friday.

In summary, IREN is undergoing a strategic shift from Bitcoin mining to becoming a provider of high-performance data centers for artificial intelligence, necessitating substantial investments in data centers and hardware, specifically NVIDIA GPUs.

Mining Costs Rise Significantly

According to ChainCatcher and the latest data from CryptoRank.io, the average cash cost for mining a Bitcoin has surged to $74,600. When accounting for depreciation and stock-based compensation (SBC), the total costs rise to $137,800.

This increase in mining costs is attributed to the heightened competition in the industry, particularly as network capacity surpasses the symbolic milestone of 1 ZH/s, leading to rapidly declining mining margins. Consequently, many publicly traded mining companies are redirecting their computing power towards artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC), which offer significantly higher profit margins than traditional Bitcoin mining.

• High mining costs reflect Bitcoin scarcity, potentially contributing to the current price increase.
• The industry is splitting into two distinct business models: infrastructure providers converting mining data centers for high-profit computing tasks and traditional miners operating in a highly competitive, margin-less environment.

In conclusion, the rising costs of Bitcoin mining are reshaping the industry landscape, pushing companies to adapt to more profitable ventures.

Sources:

• IREN Aktie: Ausgezeichnete Leistungen!
• Daten: Die durchschnittlichen Bargeldkosten für das Mining eines Bitcoin betragen bereits 74.600 US-Dollar.