IREN stock jumps nearly 8% as AI data-center trade returns; earnings are the next test

IREN stock jumps nearly 8% as AI data-center trade returns; earnings are the next test

NEW YORK, January 8, 2026, 13:26 EST — Regular session

  • IREN shares up 7.7% at $46.99; traded between $42.69 and $47.57
  • Peer Applied Digital jumped after flagging “advanced talks” with a new hyperscaler customer
  • Next IREN results are estimated around Feb. 11; focus is on GPU rollout and funding

Shares of IREN Ltd (IREN.O) rose $3.37, or 7.7%, to $46.99 in afternoon trading on Thursday. The Nasdaq-listed stock swung between $42.69 and $47.57.

The move tracked fresh buying in power-hungry data-center names tied to artificial intelligence workloads. Applied Digital jumped more than 9% after it reported results and said it was in “advanced talks” with an investment-grade hyperscaler — industry shorthand for the biggest cloud firms. Barron’s

CES in Las Vegas has kept the focus on how fast demand for AI hardware is spreading through the supply chain. Nvidia and AMD used the show to preview new chips aimed at data centers; GPUs, or graphics processing units, are the workhorse chips used to train and run AI models. Investopedia

Crypto prices did little on Thursday, muting one usual driver for IREN. Bitcoin was last near $91,120, little changed on the day.

IREN, based in Sydney, runs data centers in the U.S. and Canada that it uses for bitcoin mining and for selling compute to AI customers. A Reuters company profile lists about 1,896 Nvidia H100 and H200 chips in its AI cloud business. Reuters

In November, the company said it had signed a five-year GPU cloud services contract with Microsoft worth about $9.7 billion, including a 20% prepayment, with phased deployment through 2026 at its Childress, Texas campus. Co-CEO Daniel Roberts called it a “milestone partnership” that “opens access to a new customer segment among global hyperscalers.” GlobeNewswire

But the build-out is capital heavy and timing sensitive. Reuters reported the agreement may be terminated if IREN fails to meet delivery schedules, leaving execution and funding as the main fault lines for the stock. Reuters

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