IREN secures $15b Microsoft contract for AI infra buildout

Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.

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1.

Capacity contract: Microsoft signed an approximately USD9.7 billion ($14.81 billion) deal to buy AI cloud capacity from Australian neocloud IREN. IREN said that the five-year agreement will give Microsoft access to Nvidia GB300 GPU systems, with a total contract value of approximately USD9.7 billion, including a 20% prepayment. IREN also said it has entered into an agreement with Dell Technologies to purchase the GPUs and ancillary equipment for approximately USD5.8 billion. The GPUs are expected to be deployed in phases through 2026 at IREN’s Texas campus, in parallel with the delivery of new liquid-cooled data centres that will collectively support 200MW of critical IT load. The deal is expected to generate approximately USD1.94 billion in annualised revenue and will use about 10% of IREN’s total capacity. Meanwhile, Microsoft said it will spend over USD7.9 billion on data centres, cloud computing and employees in the United Arab Emirates and will ship the latest Nvidia chips to the Gulf country for the first time. (Capital Brief)(IREN)(Bloomberg)(FT)

2.

AI Web: OpenAI signed a seven-year, USD38 billion ($58.1 billion) agreement with Amazon Web Services to secure access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia graphics processing units. The deal also marks the tech giant’s first computing partnership. OpenAI will begin using AWS immediately, with all planned capacity to be delivered by the end of 2026 and the option to expand further. Amazon will deploy Nvidia’s GB200 and GB300 AI chips in dedicated clusters to support ChatGPT and train new models. AWS CEO Matt Garman said its infrastructure would serve as a backbone for OpenAI’s AI efforts. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the partnership will help bring advanced AI to everyone. The deal comes after OpenAI’s restructuring last month gave it more operational and financial freedom and removed Microsoft’s exclusive right to supply compute. OpenAI has also committed to cloud deals with Microsoft (USD250 billion), Oracle (USD300 billion), CoreWeave (USD22.4 billion) and Google. Separately, AWS also announced a fibre partnership with Verizon to support AI infrastructure. Amazon shares rose nearly 6% after the news. (Capital Brief)(WSJ)(Bloomberg)(Reuters)(OpenAI)

3.

Huggies-Tylenol combo: Kimberly-Clark agreed to buy the maker of US painkiller Tylenol, Kenvue, in a deal worth around USD40 billion ($61.05 billion), despite Trump’s recent comments about the use of the painkiller. The companies said that Kenvue holders will receive USD3.50 per share in cash and 0.14625 Kimberly-Clark shares per Kenvue share, for a total consideration of USD21.01 a share based on Kimberly-Clark’s Friday closing price, representing a 46% premium on Kenvue’s closing share price on Friday. The cash and stock transaction values Kenvue at an enterprise value of approximately USD48.7 billion. Upon transaction completion, expected for H2 2026, current Kimberly-Clark shareholders will own roughly 54%. Kenvue, with a portfolio including Neutrogena, Listerine, Benadryl and Band-Aid products, has struggled since it was spun off from Johnson & Johnson. The deal may be made more complicated given recent comments by the US administration, including a claim by Trump that the use of Tylenol by pregnant women could potentially cause autism in their unborn children. (Capital Brief)(Kimberly-Clark, Kenvue)

4.

Coin flip: Animoca Brands, the Hong Kong-based firm delisted from the ASX in 2020 over its involvement in crypto-related activities, has signed a non-binding term sheet to go public via a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed fintech Currenc Group. The deal, to be completed through an Australian scheme of arrangement, would see Currenc acquire all Animoca shares, with Animoca shareholders owning 95% of the merged entity. The agreement remains subject to due diligence, a formal contract, and regulatory and shareholder approvals, with completion expected by late 2026. Animoca holds stakes in over 620 firms and reported USD314 million ($480.7 million) in 2024 revenue. The deal comes amid a regulatory shift under the Trump administration, including crypto pardons, dropped enforcement actions and the launch of “Project Crypto”. Currenc will spin off parts of its business and adopt a dual-class share structure. Co-founder Yat Siu said the deal would create the world’s first listed digital assets conglomerate. (Capital Brief)(Animoca Brands)

5.

Brighte future: Brighte will use $40 million in funding it secured from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, under the federal government's Household Energy Upgrades Fund, to ride Australia's unprecedented battery storage surge. Brighte will offer discounted green loans (launching this month) at 6.99%, down from 8.99%, and support the rollout of up to $150 million in consumer energy resources across Australia. For Brighte, which has facilitated more than $2 billion in sustainable finance for over 200,000 Australian households, the CEFC backing provides crucial validation. CEO Katherine McConnell told Capital Brief the company has proven its credit quality, having issued seven term-outs including Australia's first 100% green bond in 2020, with top tranches earning AAA ratings from Moody's. "Brighte's annualised loss rate is <1%," she said. McConnell reveals that September 2025 alone saw nearly fivefold growth in battery volumes compared to September 2024. The surge has been so dramatic that customers ordering batteries now face installation delays stretching to March. (Capital Brief)

6.

Fintech fire: Airwallex reached USD1 billion ($1.5 billion) in annualised recurring revenue and expects to double that to over $3 billion in the next year, cofounders Jack Zhang and Lucy Liu told Fortune and the AFR. Zhang said it took the company nine years to reach its first US500 million, but just over one more to hit USD1 billion, with a 90% year-on-year growth rate. The fintech, founded in Melbourne in 2015 and now based in Singapore, achieved cash flow positivity at the end of 2023 and is forecast to return to profitability in Q4 2025, a spokesperson told Fortune. Airwallex’s revenue is now spread across cross-border payments (30%), business accounts (34%) and spend management (20%). Zhang told Fortune that North America and Europe now make up close to 40% of revenue, after previously contributing nothing. Liu told the AFR the business is focused on growth and building a diversified revenue base before any public listing. Airwallex was last valued at US6.2 billion ($9.5 billion), while its Australian operations reported a $12.8 million net loss for 2023. (Fortune)(AFR)

7.

AI rally: Tech-led gains were pushing the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 higher in late Monday trading in New York, after Amazon hit a record high and Nvidia rose over 3%, even as more than 350 S&P 500 companies were trading lower, according to Bloomberg data. A gauge of the "Magnificent Seven" was 1.5% higher, but the equal-weighted S&P 500 fell, highlighting weak market breadth. Despite strong earnings across tech and healthcare, macro commentary remained mixed. The Dow was 0.4% lower, weighed by losses in UnitedHealth and Merck. US manufacturing activity contracted for an eighth straight month in October, with the ISM manufacturing PMI falling to 48.7 from 49.1 in September as new orders, exports and employment remained subdued. The ISM survey pointed to weak production, longer supplier delivery times and ongoing tariff-related uncertainty constraining factory output. Federal Reserve officials gave hawkish signals, with Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee saying he is in no rush to cut rates. CME Group data cited by Reuters showed traders now price in a 70.3% chance of a December cut, down from 90% a week earlier. Bitcoin fell 2.5% to about USD107,000 as over USD1.1 billion in crypto positions were liquidated. (Reuters)(Bloomberg)(WSJ)

8.

Level p(l)aying field: Mastercard’s vice chair Tim Murphy urged the Reserve Bank to level the playing field between card companies and competitors like American Express and Apple, as Australia emerges as a priority market in the global payments industry. Lobbying RBA governor Michele Bullock, head of payments policy Ellis Connolly and policymakers in Australia last week, Murphy said the USD500 billion global payments company is willing the central bank to come to the right policy decisions. Murphy argues the ongoing RBA review gives Australia the first real opportunity to regulate payment providers equally, but he believes it is "problematic" that Apple Pay, American Express and the buy now, pay later sector all fall outside of this remit review, with all expected to face different rules. Mastercard wants the central bank to move forward with removing surcharges but opposes proposed reductions to the caps on interchange fees, arguing it would threaten payments innovation and security. (Capital Brief)