IREN (IREN)
Crypto-miner pivoted to AI infra. $9.7B Microsoft deal. 2GW Sweetwater campus.
- Ticker: IREN
- Sector: gpu cloud
- DC exposure tier: high
IREN (IREN) is a high-exposure name in the data-center supply chain in the gpu cloud sector. Data Center Index tracks IREN's capex history, project wins, and supplier exposure across the AI infrastructure buildout, refreshed daily from SEC filings and project announcements.
IREN data center thesis
Bitcoin miner pivoting power and cooling infrastructure into AI compute, anchored by a $9.7B Microsoft deal and the 600 MW Sweetwater Texas campus. Capex jumped from $0.14B in 2024 to $1.8B in 2025 as mining sites convert to AI capacity, with another 300 MW under construction at Childress, TX. Up 769% YoY as the market re-rates the conversion option.
Bull case
- Sweetwater scales to 600 MW under a $9.7B Microsoft contract, structural validation that miner-to-AI conversion isn't a pitch deck, plus 300 MW more at Childress and ~2 GW of long-tail site optionality in West Texas.
- Already controls energized power and substation interconnects acquired during the BTC build cycle, the single scarcest asset in 2026 DC permitting (multi-year ERCOT queues) that competitors have to greenfield from zero.
- TTM gross margin of 68% on the AI cloud mix dwarfs the sub-30% economics of mining; every megawatt converted is a step-function ROIC improvement the equity is just beginning to price.
Bear case
- Up 769% YoY trades at a premium to even pure-play CRWV and NBIS on revenue multiples; any softness in MSFT contract milestones or GPU commissioning timeline triggers severe multiple compression.
- BTC price and hashprice still drive a chunk of cash flow during the conversion years; a crypto bear market or post-halving margin compression starves the AI capex pipeline at exactly the wrong moment.
- Single-customer Microsoft contract for the marquee Sweetwater build creates the same MSFT-counterparty risk that haunted CRWV pre-2025, with no diversified offtake to fall back on if MSFT renegotiates.
Data center exposure rationale
Bitcoin miner pivoting capacity to AI cloud (Childress, Sweetwater); 100% DC infrastructure deployment.
Tracked IREN data center projects
- Sweetwater Campus, 2 GW, Sweetwater, TX · under construction
- Childress Campus, 750 MW, Childress, TX · operational
Analysis mentioning IREN
Recent IREN news
- Iren targets 900MW data center campus in Wagga Wagga, Australia, DCD, 2026-10-14
- Iren secures contract from "leading frontier lab," on track to exit crypto business by end of year, DCD, 2026-09-02
- Iren acquires Spanish data center developer Nostrum, DCD, 2026-05-08
- Nvidia Places Massive AI Infrastructure Bet on IREN’s 5 GW Pipeline, Data Center Knowledge, 2026-05-07
- Iren energizes first phase of 2GW Sweetwater data center campus in Texas, DCD, 2026-05-06