While announcing its hash rate expansion, Iris also said that its previous HPC data center strategy had become a parallel focus.
Bitcoin mining from Iris Energy (NASDAQ: IREN) is planning to expand its hash rate capacity by the beginning of next year. On Tuesday, the Bitcoin miner revealed its major hash rate expansion plans, causing its shares to jump 21%. Iris said it is boosting its hash rate capacity by 63% to 9.1 exahashes per second (EH/s) by early 2024. After the company’s shares popped in reaction to the announcement, the rally continued in after-hours trading as it currently trades up 1.21%.
Iris Announces Hash Rate Expansion Plan
In a press release published on June 20, Iris mentioned the ongoing construction of the remaining 80MW of data centers for Phase 1 of its 600MW Childress site in Texas. It is the additional 4 X 20 MW data centers the company expects to spike its operating capacity. Iris plans to increase its hash rate capacity from 5.6 EH/s to 9.1 EH/s by early 2024.
“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 Company remains well capitalized with ~$64m of cash4, no debt, operating cashflows from its existing 5.6 EH/s, as well as additional optionality from its committed equity facility.”
At its current hash rate, Iris is still in line with its February prediction. At the time, the Bitcoin miner said it would nearly triple its capacity from 2.0 EH/s. It experienced a significant setback in November, causing a capacity slash by 3.6 EH/s. This was because it put off many machines used as loan collateral. Iris had revealed that the lender of the loans still seeks remedies to the matter. Last week, the lender moved to see that Iris uses the profits generated from its additional mining as collateral to secure its lending facilities. This happened at a hearing with the Superior Court of British Columbia. However, Iris believes that the “claims are without merit”.
While announcing its hash rate expansion, Iris also said that its previous HPC data center strategy had become a parallel focus. The company signed a memorandum of understanding with Dell Technologies in March 2020. Iris said the effort was to test and develop potential data center solutions for energy-intensive computer applications. The deal is to leverage Dell Technologies’ HPC and AI expertise. The firm added:
‘Developments continue to accelerate in the sector, including the growth of computing power and clean energy requirements. Recent discussions with market participants have further validated this previous work and that the time may be right to expand into this sector, utilizing Iris Energy’s four existing operating sites and/or its geographically diversified portfolio of additional global sites currently under development.”
Moving forward, Iris is waiting on “additional long-lead items” for Childress Phase 2.
Ibukun is a crypto/finance writer interested in passing relevant information, using non-complex words to reach all kinds of audience.
Apart from writing, she likes to see movies, cook, and explore restaurants in the city of Lagos, where she resides.
