IREN Shares Jump 30% After AI Cloud Deal with Microsoft

Shares of Bitcoin miner IREN rose nearly 30% in pre-market trading after the company announced a major AI cloud hosting deal with Microsoft. The deal, worth $9.7 billion, shows IREN’s shift from just cryptocurrency mining to the growing fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing.

IREN Set for a Long-Term Growth Opportunity

Under this agreement, IREN will provide Microsoft access to its Nvidia GB300 GPUs. These are advanced graphics processors meant for AI tasks and high-performance computing. Notably, as part of the deal, Microsoft will pay 20% upfront, showing its strong commitment and confidence in IREN’s AI capabilities.

IREN also plans to build liquid-cooled data centers to handle 200 megawatts of important IT load. This will improve energy efficiency and support large-scale AI training and cloud workloads. 

Additionally, IREN recently signed a $5.8 billion deal with Dell Technologies to buy GPUs and related equipment. These advanced components will be set up in stages through 2026 at IREN’s 750-megawatt facility in Childress, Texas, one of the largest energy and data centers in the U.S.

The mining firm plans to fund its capital expenditures using existing cash reserves, customer prepayments, operating cash flow, and other financing options. Undoubtedly, the partnerships with Microsoft and Dell reflect how the firm is changing into a modern AI and data infrastructure leader. Analysts believe these deals could significantly improve IREN’s revenue, operational size, and long-term growth opportunities.

IREN From Overvalued to Overperforming

In August, IREN shares also surged 11.4% after the company posted $86 million in revenue for July. Interestingly, its revenue price surpassed industry giant MARA Holdings in monthly Bitcoin production. The Australian-based firm reported mining 728 BTC, outpacing MARA’s 703 BTC, despite operating a smaller deployed hashrate.

This puts IREN just behind MARA in terms of public miner valuations and ahead of rivals like Riot Platforms and Core Scientific. It is also worth noting that the company’s revenue stream is no longer entirely dependent on Bitcoin. Meanwhile, IREN’s strong July follows a sharp turnaround in investor sentiment. 

About a year ago, short-seller Culper Research criticized the company as “wildly overvalued” and unprepared to compete in the AI space. The firm likened IREN’s ambitions to entering the Monaco Grand Prix with a Toyota Prius. At the time, the company’s stock dropped, but after a few months, it staged a dramatic recovery, reclaiming investor confidence.

Palantir Brings AI Power to U.S. Defence

Last year, Palantir Technologies saw its stock surge 11% following the announcement of a strategic partnership with Microsoft. The partnership is geared to providing AI services and analytics to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.

As reported by TheCoinRise, the partnership will allow the company to deploy its full suite of products within Microsoft’s top-secret cloud environments. These products include Gotham, Foundry, Apollo, and the Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP). There is no doubt that Palantir has committed to being an “early adopter” of Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service.