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IREN Limited

IREN
The AI power crunch↑
Our rating
hold
12-month target
$27.80 +26.3%
Expected vs. S&P 500
+7.8 ptsSee the math
Next earnings
Nov 5Today

Customers and chip lenders are paying for nearly all the GPUs in IREN's biggest contracts; shareholders' risk is the data centers, which no lender has financed yet.

Summary

IREN is turning itself from a Bitcoin miner into an AI cloud, renting Nvidia chips from data centers it builds on its own cheap power. Mining was still half of June-quarter revenue and ends by December, when IREN expects $4B a year of AI rental revenue to be running. It plans to spend $25–30B in the year to June 2027, far more than it has raised. The stock depends on whether lenders keep funding that build after October's AI cloud sell-off, or IREN sells many more shares.

$24.50
-$43.25 (-63.84%)Past year
What IREN Limited does

IREN owns cheap grid power, builds data centers on it, and rents the Nvidia chips inside to AI companies. Unlike most rivals, it owns every layer: land, power, buildings and chips.1,2,3,6

What it sells

  • Bitcoin mining82% of revenue, FY2026

    Machines that earn Bitcoin with spare power. IREN is switching them off by December 2026 to free up power for AI.

  • AI cloud18% of revenue, FY2026

    Renting Nvidia GPUs by the hour on multi-year contracts. Already half of revenue in the June quarter, and the whole future business.

Who buys it

Microsoft is the anchor, with a five-year, $9.7B contract. An unnamed frontier AI lab signed in August, and Nvidia, Perplexity, Together AI, Fluidstack and others also rent capacity. Spreading capacity across many customers is a stated goal.

Where you've seen it

When people use Microsoft's AI services, some of the computing may run on IREN chips in rural Texas.

The backstory

AI companies want computing capacity faster than data centers can be built, because building takes grid power that can take years to secure. IREN already had that power from Bitcoin mining in Texas and British Columbia. In November 2025 it signed Microsoft to a $9.7B contract, and it is now switching its mines to AI chips and building new data centers for many more customers.

How the business makes money

Why IREN's value depends on borrowing against its contracts1,2,3,4,5,6

  1. Step 1

    IREN already owns grid power from its Bitcoin mining days, which is the slowest thing for any rival to get.

  2. Step 2

    It sells chip capacity to AI companies on multi-year contracts before it switches the chips on.

  3. Step 3

    Those contracts bring prepayments and let IREN borrow against the chips, so customers and lenders fund most of the GPU bill.

  4. Step 4

    The buildings, about a third of the cost, still need billions that IREN must borrow or raise by selling shares; no lender has financed them yet.

  5. What shareholders get

    Once running, each contract repays its chips in about two years, and the cash funds the next site.

Advantages

Power already connected to the grid

Major advantage

This is the advantage that matters most, because power is what limits AI building today. IREN has more than 5 gigawatts in its pipeline, and management says the $4B of 2026 contracts uses under 10% of its secured grid connections. Rivals starting now wait years for the same.1,2,5

It builds and runs the whole stack

Strong advantage

A real strength, since it speeds delivery. IREN designs, builds and operates its own data centers and owns the chips, so it keeps the full rental rather than a landlord's rent. Nvidia gave its Microsoft deployment Exemplar Cloud status after testing it.1,4

Customers pay before chips arrive

Supporting

Helpful, though not guaranteed to last. Recent contracts carry prepayments of 45–55% of GPU cost, which cuts how much IREN must borrow. IREN warns future deals may not include them.1,3

What's changing

Building through a credit scare

IREN fell about 40% in October with other AI cloud stocks. On October 14, a CoreWeave bond's yield briefly passed 15%, a sign lenders want more to fund AI clouds, and Gartner predicted 80% of these providers won't stay independent past 2030. IREN closed at $24.91 on October 23, down from $41.76 on October 2, though its own contracts did not change.12,23,24

Competitors

Who else an investor would consider, and how they compare.

CompanyMarket valueWhat it doesCompared with IREN Limited
IREN Limitedthis stock
$9.91B
IREN owns cheap grid power, builds data centers on it, and rents the Nvidia chips inside to AI companies. Unlike most rivals, it owns every layer: land, power, buildings and chips.
CoreWeaveCRWV
$30.43B
The largest independent AI cloud, renting Nvidia chips from data centers it mostly leases.CoreWeave leases its buildings and owes about $35B; IREN owns its power and sites.20,24
NebiusNBIS—Amsterdam-based AI cloud that builds its own hardware and software alongside compute.Nebius sells more software with its chips; IREN's edge is cheap power it controls.21
Cipher MiningCIFR—Another former Bitcoin miner, leasing powered buildings to AWS and Fluidstack.Cipher rents out powered buildings; IREN also buys the chips and carries their risk.22
Crusoe (private)private—Private AI cloud and data center builder that IREN names as a direct competitor.Crusoe is private; IREN is a listed AI cloud owning its power, buildings and chips.2