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Blue Owl Leads .4B AI Infrastructure Financing for IREN's Blackwell Ultra Campus

Funds managed by alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital have led a $2.4 billion compute equipment financing facility for IREN Limited. The capital is designated to fund purchases of Nvidia Accelerated Computing Infrastructure, including Blackwell Ultra GPUs, for IREN's Mackenzie data center campus in British Columbia, Canada. The financing package consists of a $1.2 billion senior secured term loan and $1.2 billion in senior secured notes. The facility was arranged at a 9.0% fixed interest

axc
axc
2 min
Blue Owl Leads .4B AI Infrastructure Financing for IREN's Blackwell Ultra Campus

Funds managed by alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital have led a $2.4 billion compute equipment financing facility for IREN Limited. The capital is designated to fund purchases of Nvidia Accelerated Computing Infrastructure, including Blackwell Ultra GPUs, for IREN's Mackenzie data center campus in British Columbia, Canada.

The financing package consists of a $1.2 billion senior secured term loan and $1.2 billion in senior secured notes. The facility was arranged at a 9.0% fixed interest rate with participation from Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) acting as adviser to institutional investors.

Schematic of phased tranche debt drawdowns aligned with GPU hardware delivery schedules

Tranche Structure Tied to Hardware Delivery

The $2.4 billion credit facility uses a staged draw structure that links capital deployment directly to the arrival and commissioning of GPU hardware at the Mackenzie site:

  • Capex Coverage: The facility finances approximately 90% of the associated GPU capital expenditure. Combined with customer prepayments, the capital fully covers GPU acquisition costs and provides additional funding for campus electrical and cooling buildouts.
  • Phased Milestones: Funds are disbursed in tranches across a defined draw window, reducing idle carrying costs while hardware is manufactured and installed.
  • Air-Cooled Deployment: Unlike liquid-cooled configurations deployed elsewhere in IREN's fleet, the Mackenzie expansion relies on air-cooled infrastructure optimized for Blackwell Ultra systems.

IREN Infrastructure Footprint and Hyperscale Contracts

The financing follows rapid scaling across IREN's data center portfolio, which includes a global development pipeline exceeding 5 GW:

  • Microsoft Deployments: IREN delivered its first 50 MW liquid-cooled deployment to Microsoft at its Childress, Texas campus in August 2026, supported by a separate $3.6 billion investment-grade GPU financing facility at a 6.0% weighted average interest rate.
  • Contracted Revenue: As of August 2026, IREN reports $4 billion in contracted annualized run-rate revenue for 2026 capacity, with $1 billion in current operating ARR.
  • Asset-Backed Debt Model: The transaction reinforces the growing role of private credit in funding AI data center expansions, treating GPU fleets and power-connected real estate as underwriting collateral.

Sources

AIInfrastructureHardwareNvidiaData Centers
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