IREN favors AI cloud in high-stakes break from Bitcoin roots
IREN Ltd., once known for mining Bitcoin, is undergoing a dramatic reinvention as an AI infrastructure provider—a transformation that will face a critical test when the company reports second-quarter earnings on Thursday.
Summary
- IREN has pivoted from Bitcoin mining to AI cloud infrastructure, repurposing its energy sites into data centers and securing a $9.7 billion partnership with Microsoft to support next-generation compute.
- Shares have sold off sharply ahead of Q2 earnings as investors focus on dilution risk.
- The upcoming earnings report has investors concerned over whether funding roughly 140,000 GPUs by year-end could require equity issuance.
Formerly Iris Energy, IREN has shifted away from crypto mining and into what it calls a “Neocloud” model, repurposing its stranded-energy Bitcoin sites into large-scale data centers designed to support artificial intelligence workloads.
A $9.7 billion partnership with Microsoft helped position IREN as a potential player in the race to supply next-generation compute capacity.
The ambition has not come cheap
Ahead of earnings, IREN shares have tumbled, falling nearly 19% intraday on Wednesday and down about 28% over the past five days, as investors worry that funding the company’s GPU-heavy cloud expansion could require dilutive equity issuance.
After a 314% rally over the past year, the pullback underscores growing skepticism about whether IREN can scale its AI cloud business without eroding shareholder value.
The upcoming earnings report represents a clear break from the company’s Bitcoin mining past, shifting attention to cloud execution, financing discipline, and competition with established players like Amazon and Oracle—making it a critical test of the company’s pivot.
IREN isn’t alone
Other companies have attempted comparable transformations—some successfully, others less so:
- Core Scientific – Transitioned from pure Bitcoin mining to offering high-performance computing and AI colocation services after emerging from bankruptcy, leveraging existing infrastructure to attract AI customers.
- Hut 8 – Expanded beyond crypto mining into HPC and data center services, pitching its energy assets as ideal for AI workloads.
- Northern Data – Repositioned itself as a European AI and cloud infrastructure provider, shifting investor focus from Bitcoin exposure to GPU-based compute capacity.
- Nvidia (earlier era) – While not a crypto miner, Nvidia successfully pivoted from gaming-focused GPUs to becoming the backbone of AI compute, showing how infrastructure players can redefine their identity through demand shifts.
- IBM – Moved from legacy hardware to cloud and AI services over the past decade, using partnerships and hybrid infrastructure to reinvent its growth narrative.
IREN now joins this list at a moment when AI infrastructure demand is booming—but capital markets patience is thinning. Whether it becomes a case study in smart reinvention or costly overreach may hinge on what it delivers this earnings season.
