IREN’s unconfirmed Anthropic deal tests miners’ AI cloud pivot

On October 12, Blockspace disclosed that IREN sealed a multi-year cloud contract with Anthropic. However, both organizations have refused to make a confirmation. The more serious issue to consider would be if Bitcoin miners can make a profit from AI contracts.

A deal no one will confirm

Blockspace, citing the report from The Information, noted that there was a deal but did not provide any further information regarding its value, capacity, and timeline for delivery. In an announcement on August 27, IREN said that a new customer described as a leading AI lab had signed up with them but did not provide any specific name. It is yet to be confirmed that the customer is Anthropic.

The difference between $4 billion and what IREN bills

IREN reported $4 billion in contracted annualized run-rate revenue (ARR) for its 2026 capacity, but only $1 billion was operating as of August 26. ARR is not booked sales. In its SEC disclosure, IREN warned:

…recognized revenue may be materially lower.

Revenue from AI cloud services reached $128.8 million in the fiscal year 2026, up from $16.4 million in the fiscal year 2025. Mining continued to contribute with revenue of $578.2 million.

IREN reported a net loss of $702.6 million, which included $638.8 million of non-cash impairment losses due mainly to the decommissioning of mining rigs.

$100 billion in backlog, 550 megawatts actually billing

According to estimates from CoinShares, miners have more than $100 billion worth of AI and HPC backlogs, which is supporting yearly revenue of $1.1 billion. Just 550 MW is currently being billed out of the more than 4 GW that has been contracted.

Bitcoin’s closing price for the second quarter of the year of 2026 was $58,400, which is below what miners say is the cash cost of mining the cryptocurrency, which is $75,500 per coin.

Core Scientific spent over $41.9 million to cancel its equipment orders, while Keel closed its mining operation on June 29, 2026. There are expected to be exits from IREN and Cipher which will remove over 35 EH/s from listed miners.

Where the contracts can still break

IREN has completed the delivery of Horizon 1, a 50-MW liquid-cooled facility, to Microsoft. Horizon 2 is undergoing the commissioning process, while Horizons 3 and 4 are expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2026 subject to the availability of resources. However, the commissioning of the facilities relies on having the necessary equipment, power and due approval from customers.

The costs are another difficulty. IREN has secured $3.6 billion at 6% for the financing of Microsoft’s GPU projects and $2.4 billion at 9% for its Mackenzie growth. About 45% to 55% of the GPU costs of new contracts are covered by prepayments from customers, but retrofitting a mining facility for AI is costly.

According to CoinShares, the costs range from $8 million to $15 million for 1 MW for AI, while the cost of Bitcoin mining is less than $1 million.

Akamai shows what a confirmed deal looks like

Akamai announced a contract involving Anthropic worth $11.6 billion and expected to run for seven years on September 24, 2026, which can go up to $20 billion. In addition, Anthropic was granted a warrant for up to 5% shares of Akamai. The purpose of this deal is to provide CPU workload but not to supply GPU capacity miners are developing.

The real constraint is powered land

As Cryptopolitan reported, existing grid connections are becoming prized AI assets. VanEck calls power the bottleneck. CoinShares counts 225 US data-center restrictions and a 2,600-GW interconnection queue. Leased AI facilities are valued near $27 million per MW, compared with under $3 million for some unleased mining sites.

The IEA forecasts 950 TWh of global data-center electricity consumption by 2030. Yet scarce power alone will not deliver profits. Commissioned megawatts, cash flow and financing costs matter more than contract headlines.