Iris Energy buys 248 Nvidia GPUs worth $10M for generative AI & Bitcoin mining

Nasdaq-listed Iris Energy has bought 248 state of the art Nvidia H100 GPUs for $10 million as it looks to explore opportunities in generative AI in addition to its core business focus on

Renewable-powered Bitcoin mining operations continue to attract investment, with Genesis Digital Assets Limited opening a new data centre in Sweden in August 2023 that will operate off abundant power from the nearby Porjus Hydroelectric Power Station.

Meanwhile Blockstream recently announced its intent to raise up to $50 million in an official investment note to purchase, store and then sell BTC mining hardware ahead of Bitcoin’s next halving event in 2024. 

GPU hardware manufacturer Nvidia has also seen significant windfall from the rise of AI-powered tools and AI computing, with its total market capitalization eclipsing $1 trillion in May 2023.

Nvidia also recently teased its next-generation GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip which is touted to be able to process complex generative AI workloads, includling large language models, recommender systems and vector databases.

Magazine: Recursive inscriptions: Bitcoin ‘supercomputer’ and BTC DeFi coming soon