NEW YORK, March 12, 2026, 6:15 PM EDT
IREN slipped roughly 1.3% to $41.37 on Thursday, surrendering some of Wednesday’s sharp 10% rally. Pressure from a broader pullback in U.S. growth stocks weighed on the shares. The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.78%, with traders on edge over rallying oil prices and heightened Middle East tensions. Barron’s
This is significant: IREN is deep into a pricey transition, moving out of bitcoin mining and into AI cloud services. Back on March 4, it announced plans to pick up more than 50,000 Nvidia B300 GPUs—the same chips powering today’s AI models. The company also boosted its at-the-market stock-sale program, giving it the option to issue fresh shares gradually. Nasdaq
IREN expects its expanded hardware to push the total GPU count to 150,000, a boost that, by the end of 2026, could drive more than $3.7 billion in AI-cloud annualized run-rate revenue—a ballpark figure for potential yearly sales at that scale. “Scaling to 150,000 GPUs positions IREN among the largest AI cloud infrastructure providers globally,” co-CEO Daniel Roberts said. Nasdaq
Financing remains the sticking point for many investors. According to a March 4 SEC filing, IREN now has authorization to sell as much as $6 billion in ordinary shares—this comes after tapping out a previous $1 billion facility, with 66.7 million shares already sold for roughly $1 billion. The prospectus flagged the risk: additional share sales could dilute existing holdings, cutting investors’ stakes and potentially weighing on the stock.
IREN described the equity program as an addition to its existing funding mix as the company ramps up. In its March 4 statement, the firm said it had lined up $9.3 billion in funding over the past eight months. Management is planning for another $3.5 billion in capital outlays for new GPU orders, set for the back half of 2026. Nasdaq
Even so, the most recent quarter lays bare the market’s skepticism. For the three months ending Dec. 31, total revenue dropped 23.1% sequentially to $184.7 million. IREN booked a net loss of $155.4 million. Bitcoin mining brought in $167.4 million in sales; AI cloud services contributed just $17.3 million. Nasdaq
Management insists demand isn’t the issue. Back in February, Roberts described IREN’s situation as “the strongest demand environment to date,” highlighting over 4.5 gigawatts of locked-in power for the next stage of expansion. Nasdaq
There’s at least one big-name client. Back in November, Reuters reported that Microsoft lined up a $9.7 billion, five-year deal with IREN for Nvidia-powered cloud resources—a contract that quickly shifted investor perception, pushing the company squarely into the AI infrastructure spotlight. Reuters
IREN wasn’t alone in Thursday’s slide. Shares in Applied Digital ended down around 3.7%, Cipher Digital lost close to 2.8%, and Core Scientific shed 1.8%. The moves point to broader selling pressure in riskier tech stocks as investors trimmed positions. Reuters
Still, hitting that upside depends on how well IREN delivers. The company puts its $3.7 billion AI revenue projection down to internal modeling, not solid contracts, while Cantor Fitzgerald’s Brett Knoblauch flagged investor worry about “capex, financing cost, and ultimately returns” in his February note. Right now, the shares are caught—caught between bets on massive growth and nagging questions about just how much cash and fresh equity will be needed to pull it off. Nasdaq
