Bitcoin miner Iris Energy shares surge 20% on 9.1 EH/s expansion announcement

Bitcoin (BTC) miner Iris Energy IREN shares have jumped by nearly 20% following news of its planned 9.1 exahashes/second (EH/s) expansion.

Data from Nasdaq shows that miner shares rose to $4.09 from $3.53 during early trading hours of June 20.

Expansion plans

According to a July 20 press statement, Iris plans to expand its capacity by 63% to 9.1 EH/s by early 2024 and revitalize its high-performance computing (HPC) data center strategy.

Iris stated that it has started building Phase 1 of its Childress facility in Texas. This will add 80 MW to its data centers, increasing the capacity to 9.1 EH/s1 by early 2024.

Additionally, the miner said that it has continued to purchase long lead items that would aid the construction of a 100-megawatt (MW) facility for its Childress Phase 2, pushing its data center capacity to 13.6 EH/s. The miner did not give a time frame for this construction.

“Near-term focus remains on data center construction, whilst retaining flexibility on timing for miner purchases, which is subject to funding and market conditions.”

The miner added that it remains well capitalized with $64 million in cash and operating cashflows from its existing 5.6 EH/s, adding that it has no debt.

High-performance computing

Iris further revealed that its previous HPC data center strategy is now a parallel focus. It signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with Dell Technologies in March 2020 to explore and develop energy-efficient data center solutions for compute-intensive applications.

Iris said recent developments within the space and its discussions with market participants had validated these previous works, adding that “the time may be right to expand into this sector.”

The miner added that this could involve leveraging its four operational sites and diverse portfolio of additional global locations currently being developed.

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