New York, Jan 9, 2026, 12:45 EST — Regular session
- IREN shares up about 7% at $48.90, outpacing most listed crypto miners
- Bitcoin steadies near $91,000 as broader U.S. stocks edge higher
- Focus turns to funding and buildout milestones ahead of February results
IREN Limited shares rose about 7% to $48.90 on Friday, extending a choppy week for the Nasdaq-listed stock as traders leaned back into higher-risk names. Bitcoin was little changed near $91,067, while peers were mixed, with Riot Platforms up about 3% and Marathon Digital down about 0.4%.
The move comes with U.S. stocks grinding higher after a softer December jobs report left expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts broadly intact. “This is a report that’s somewhat within the range of expectations of investors, so they’re not reacting,” Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, said. 1
For IREN investors, the near-term question is whether the company can keep execution tight as it tries to turn itself from a bitcoin miner into a power-and-data-center platform for AI workloads. The company has a five-year, $9.7 billion contract with Microsoft tied to deployments of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs — chips widely used to run AI models) through 2026, with Dell supplying about $5.8 billion of equipment, Reuters has reported. 2
That backdrop makes the stock sensitive to shifts in rates and risk appetite, but also to any sign the buildout is slipping. The Microsoft contract can be terminated if delivery timelines are missed, Reuters reported, putting extra weight on commissioning schedules and equipment delivery into 2026. 2
Still, the upside case depends on heavy spending and steady access to power, hardware and financing. Any delays in bringing capacity online, or a renewed slump in crypto-linked sentiment, can hit a stock that has tended to trade like a leveraged bet on both AI infrastructure and bitcoin.
The next hard check-in is earnings. Zacks’ earnings calendar pegs IREN’s next report around Feb. 11, based on prior reporting patterns, though dates can shift if the company updates its schedule. 3
