--- title: "Perplexity pays both ends: multi-year GPU rents at IREN, lawsuits from the Times and Tribune" description: "A $30 billion answer engine now pays multi-year rent on Nvidia Blackwell Ultra capacity at IREN while courts decide what it must also pay for the words it summarizes. The margin structure is being written outside its own product." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Data Center" published: 2026-11-03T19:07:52.208Z modified: 2026-11-03T19:07:52.208Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/perplexity-pays-both-ends-multi-year-gpu-rents-at-iren-lawsuits-from-the-times-and-tribune language: en keywords: "Perplexity, IREN, GPU Cloud, Copyright, Data Centers, Nvidia" --- # Perplexity pays both ends: multi-year GPU rents at IREN, lawsuits from the Times and Tribune > A $30 billion answer engine now pays multi-year rent on Nvidia Blackwell Ultra capacity at IREN while courts decide what it must also pay for the words it summarizes. The margin structure is being written outside its own product. [Perplexity](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/perplexity) just [signed a multi-year contract to rent NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPU capacity from IREN](https://www.boerse-global.de/iren-aktie-perplexity-bleibt-ueber-jahre-an-bord/838258), the data-center operator turned AI cloud, to power the models and agents behind Perplexity Computer. The deal was announced on Friday, October 31, and it covers capacity at one of [IREN](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/iren)'s campuses [1]. Four days from now, IREN reports earnings, and this customer relationship is suddenly a line item investors can count. ## A $30 billion company renting the machines it answers with Perplexity is not a small bet anymore. [A fresh funding round that includes Nvidia valued the answer-engine company at US$30 billion](https://www.convergencialatina.com/News-Detail/375847-3-8-New_Perplexity_funding_round_includes_Nvidia_and_raises_valuation_to_US30_billion?Lang=EN), up from $20 billion a year earlier, with the jump tied to the launch of its Perplexity Computer agent system [3]. [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia) is now on both sides of Perplexity's stack: a shareholder through the round [3] and, through IREN, the ultimate supplier of the chips under contract [1]. That is the arrangement in one sentence: Perplexity answers questions about the world, and it pays multi-year rent on the hardware that makes the answers possible [1]. ## The two bills, and the lawsuits setting one of them Here is the complication. Perplexity's cost base has two big lines, and it controls the pricing of neither. The compute bill is set in data-center contracts like the IREN agreement [1]. The content bill is being set in courtrooms. [The Chicago Tribune and The New York Times sued Perplexity a day apart](https://mccyber.tech/snapshots/the-times-and-the-tribune-sue-perplexity-a-day-apart/), the snapshot dates the filings December 4 and 5, alleging the company copies their archives wholesale and delivers the journalism "without permission or compensation" [2]. The Tribune complaint names the consumer answer engine, the enterprise chatbot, the APIs and the Comet browser, meaning the copying claim reaches the whole product, not one output [2]. An earlier [Amazon](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/amazon) suit over Perplexity's shopping agent is also live [2]. Publishers who settled chose licensing deals instead [2]. Every settlement or judgment converts content from free raw material into a recurring cost, on top of the GPU rents. Both bills are paid from the same answer revenue. ## The supplier's side of the trade is measurable IREN shows what named-customer demand is worth. Its AI cloud business produced $70.5 million in revenue last quarter, passing bitcoin mining's $66.7 million for the first time, and Perplexity was named as the newest AI cloud customer in IREN's August 27 results [1]. The multi-year deal announced Friday builds on that relationship [1]. *Chart: **IREN's revenue peaked at $240.3M in September 2025, then fell for three straight quarters** Line chart of IREN quarterly revenue from the quarter ended September 2024 to the quarter ended June 2026, rising to a peak of 240.3 million dollars in the September 2025 quarter, then falling over three quarters to 137.2 million dollars in the June 2026 quarter.* *IREN's revenue peaked at $240.3M in September 2025, then fell for three straight quarters [4]* The whole company's numbers are rougher than the AI segment's: [revenue has slid for three straight quarters, and IREN reports fiscal Q1 2027 on November 5](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001878848) with consensus at $221.71 million of revenue and a loss of $0.76 per share [1][4]. B. Riley cut its price target on IREN from $91 to $64 on Friday while keeping its buy rating, a signal that demand and profitability are being judged separately [1]. ## What to watch Two dated readings settle the argument. IREN's November 5 print shows whether the Perplexity relationship converts into AI cloud revenue growth [1]. After that, watch how the Times and Tribune suits price content licensing into Perplexity's economics ahead of any IPO [2]. A company valued at $30 billion that rents its compute on multi-year terms and does not yet own its raw material is a margin story waiting for its numbers [1][2][3]. For readers who want the backstory: six publishers were already suing Perplexity before this month, and Amazon's separate fight over its shopping agent is covered in our earlier reporting on the Amazon case and the publisher suits. ## Takeaway Perplexity locked in multi-year rent on Nvidia Blackwell Ultra capacity at IREN on October 31, while the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times suits could turn its content bill into a recurring line item; IREN's November 5 earnings are the first check on whether the customer shows up in AI cloud revenue. ## Sources 1. [Börse Global, IREN Aktie: Perplexity bleibt über Jahre an Bord, 2 November 2026](https://www.boerse-global.de/iren-aktie-perplexity-bleibt-ueber-jahre-an-bord/838258) 2. [McCyber, The Times and the Tribune sue Perplexity a day apart, 3 November 2026](https://mccyber.tech/snapshots/the-times-and-the-tribune-sue-perplexity-a-day-apart/) 3. [Convergencia Latina, New Perplexity funding round includes Nvidia and raises valuation to US$30 billion, 29 October 2026](https://www.convergencialatina.com/News-Detail/375847-3-8-New_Perplexity_funding_round_includes_Nvidia_and_raises_valuation_to_US30_billion?Lang=EN) 4. [IREN, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 3 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001878848) --- Perplexity pays both ends: multi-year GPU rents at IREN, lawsuits from the Times and Tribune — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/perplexity-pays-both-ends-multi-year-gpu-rents-at-iren-lawsuits-from-the-times-and-tribune