On May 9, 2026, IREN signed approximately a $3.4 billion AI cloud service agreement with NVIDIA, simultaneously opening a potential equity option window worth approximately $2.1 billion for the latter. Transitioning from a “mining company” to an AI infrastructure platform, IREN has tied its future to NVIDIA with a long-term contract and a series of options. Bernstein almost simultaneously raised IREN’s target price to $100, interpreting this cooperation as the demand for AI cloud services entering an explosive growth phase, and bringing the "capital + computing power" binding model into the spotlight. On the other side of the Pacific, several Chinese media outlets are tracking another event described as a “rare massive financing”: the star of large models, DeepSeek, is rumored to be raising funds, with market gossip repeatedly naming Tencent, Alibaba, and others, but on May 9, sources cited by the “Daily Economic News” and “First Financial” denied Alibaba's participation in negotiations, simultaneously dismissing previous rumors of a failed discussion and Alibaba’s request for a deep ecological binding in strategic investment. One side is NVIDIA, following its successful equity option strategy verified in cases like CoreWeave, continuing to lock in key global computing power partners; the other side consists of Chinese large model companies, repeatedly weighing their choices regarding cloud platform, traffic entry, and business collaboration as they introduce industrial capital. The concentrated emergence of agreements, target prices, and financing rumors on this day jointly outlines that the current AI computing power arms race has entered a new phase of competition characterized by capital binding as a tool and control distribution as the core.

$3.4 Billion Contract: Mining Company IREN Bets on AI Cloud

Once famous for Bitcoin mining, IREN has quietly refined the capabilities behind the mining machines—data centers, power supply, and operations—into AI infrastructure and cloud computing power services suitable for the era of large models. On May 9, 2026, it pushed this transformation trajectory to new heights: publicly disclosing a $3.4 billion AI cloud service agreement with NVIDIA, locking in computing power supply for several years with the same chip giant. For a company originating from mining, this is not just a change of track but a long-term order that transforms a business model previously reliant on price fluctuations in cryptocurrencies into a recurring revenue story aimed at AI customers, billed by cloud services.

More importantly, this agreement is not merely a simple procurement and supply relationship. Public information indicates that IREN has also granted NVIDIA a potential equity investment option sized at approximately $2.1 billion, binding future deeper collaboration with a “call option” on the capital level. However, the details of the agreement—including service duration, specific computing power composition, and option execution conditions—remain undisclosed, with some aspects currently only visible from a single source. Those familiar with the industry can easily recall the partnership template NVIDIA had with CoreWeave and other partners: selling chips in one hand while locking in cloud computing partners through equity or options in the other, keeping the “chip + cloud” combination tightly controlled in both financial and control dimensions. Within this framework, the $3.4 billion contract represents a huge gamble on AI cloud for IREN, while for NVIDIA, it continues its systematic layout of solidifying critical computing power channels through capital contracts.

Bernstein Calls for $100: Wall Street Bets on AI Cloud Boom

After the narrative of dual binding by capital and contracts unfolded, Wall Street offered its own commentary. Bernstein issued a report on May 9, stating that the $3.4 billion agreement between IREN and NVIDIA signals that the demand for AI cloud services is entering a phase of explosive growth, and based on this, raised IREN's target stock price directly to $100. A single source indicated that this target price suggests approximately a 76% upside relative to the stock price at that time, but this specific increase has not been confirmed by other channels. In other words, Bernstein provided not just a number, but a bet that this long-term large order can smoothly land, and that AI cloud demand can continuously “fill” this new computing power.

Around this target price, market disparities quickly widened. Optimists view this $3.4 billion agreement as a “hard bottom” for valuation, believing that NVIDIA’s option binding plus Bernstein’s endorsement indicates that IREN is likely to transform from a former Bitcoin miner into a key node in the AI infrastructure landscape. A research brief cited a single source claiming that IREN plans a significant expansion of its computing power capacity and annual recurring revenue goals, but the specific values have not been publicly confirmed by the company and can only be regarded as a blueprint pending validation. A more cautious faction focuses on the uncertainties at the execution level: shifting from self-mining to providing AI cloud services to enterprise clients means fundamentally different customer relationships, service quality responsibilities, and resource scheduling difficulties. If the rhythm of launching and customer demand misaligns, the long-term contracts meant to support valuation might become a burden on the balance sheet. Therefore, amidst the high-profile trumpet call for “$100” and the low-key skepticism about “execution risks,” what the market truly needs to keep a close watch on is whether IREN can deliver real AI cloud revenue to fulfill this hundred-dollar narrative written in the report.

DeepSeek Financing Rumors Reversed: Alibaba Allegedly Not at the Table

Unlike IREN–NVIDIA's clear contract locking in computing power, DeepSeek's financing on China's capital market plays out as a foggy financing drama. As a star company in the domestic large model sector, several Chinese media outlets reported around May 9, 2026, that DeepSeek is advancing large-scale or first-round financing, unifying the description as a “rare massive” but deliberately avoiding specifics regarding amounts and valuation ranges. Rumors from the secondary market and the industry quickly caught up, listing Tencent, Alibaba, and others as potential investors, even leading to iterations of “large companies plan to acquire a high proportion of shares” and “national-level funds or the National Big Fund may participate.” However, these statements largely stemmed from a single source, with no authoritative announcements confirming them, resembling more of an “investor seating chart” filled in by the market itself.

What truly ignited public sentiment for a moment was the story circulating on social media that “Alibaba and DeepSeek’s financing negotiations collapsed.” Some versions state that Alibaba's strategic investment team proposed deep integration on cloud platform selection, traffic entry, and business cooperation, triggering DeepSeek's alertness to control and leading to the breakdown at the last minute. However, on May 9, or soon after, market insiders told the “Daily Economic News” and “First Financial” that Alibaba had not participated in this round of DeepSeek financing negotiations, making the notion of a “collapse” implausible, and the dramatized details surrounding “Alibaba’s strategic investment imposing deep binding” subsequently lost their factual basis. The prevailing understanding in the industry is that large Internet companies and industrial capital indeed tend to strive for a certain degree of ecological binding regarding cloud resources, entry distribution, and business collaboration when making strategic investments. However, given that Alibaba was reportedly not at the negotiating table, the driving forces behind DeepSeek's financing structure in this round and the binding terms remain key unknowns hanging over the market.

Control and Ecological Binding: The Invisible Game of Large Model Financing

In discussions surrounding DeepSeek's financing, the market's real anxiety is not merely "where does the money come from?" but "whoever you take the money from, pays the bill." For large model companies, what is written into financing terms regarding board seats, voting rights structures, veto rights over significant matters, and whether binding arrangements for cloud resource procurement and business cooperation accompany them nearly directly determines their strategic autonomy for the next decade. Capital markets envision that once a certain Internet giant or industrial capital enters as a “strategic investment,” DeepSeek may be forced to lean toward a single ecology in terms of cloud platform selection, traffic entry, and commercialization paths, transitioning from a candidate for “industry infrastructure” to a proprietary asset of a particular camp.

Because ecological binding is a widespread expectation in the industry yet seldom has explicit terms disclosed externally, the information vacuum has been swiftly filled with various rumors. Briefings mentioned that earlier prevalent versions included “certain large companies planning to acquire a high proportion of shares,” and even that national-level funds or the National Big Fund were likely to step in. Some used “Alibaba's strategic investment requiring deep binding in Alibaba's ecology” to explain the alleged “collapse,” but then sources came forward to the “Daily Economic News” and “First Financial” around May 9, claiming that Alibaba was not involved in relevant negotiations, rendering such scenarios based on “Alibaba's presence” devoid of factual basis. What remains is a more abstract yet difficult-to-dissolve unease: in large, not fully disclosed financings, to what extent has control and ecological binding been exchanged, and how these exchanges are magnified through various parties' imaginations and speculations before formal disclosure.

Computing Power Arms Upgrade: A Dual Bet on Infrastructure and Large Models

From the approximately $3.4 billion AI cloud agreement between IREN and NVIDIA to the tumultuous news stream surrounding DeepSeek's “rare massive financing,” on the same day were layered developments in the global and Chinese AI industry leveraging on two fronts: on one side are the infrastructure capital expenditures represented by long-term computing power contracts and approximately $2.1 billion in potential equity options, roughly pulling IREN, originally built for Bitcoin mining, into the AI cloud supply chain, and incorporating it into NVIDIA's continued “chip + cloud computing” capital ecosystem established since the CoreWeave case; on the other side, large model companies are persistently probed by the market regarding the future board structure, voting rights design, and boundaries of ecological binding in an unfinished financing game. For investors and industry participants, what requires close monitoring is not just Bernstein's target price or the headline figure of a financing round but whether these multi-year computing power contracts can be honored, how the shareholding structure and valuation will be reshuffled post-option execution, and how companies like DeepSeek will negotiate governance and control upon the arrival of funds. Variables worth ongoing observation include: the pace and profitability of IREN's full transition to the AI cloud business, the new partners NVIDIA will secure through equity or option methods globally, and when companies like DeepSeek finally disclose financing results and partner lists, how much the reorganization of capital and control will reshape the next round of the AI industry landscape.

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