IREN Stock Plunges Amid Major Strategic Pivot

IREN AU0000185993

The investment landscape for IREN has been rattled by extreme volatility, with its shares swinging wildly despite a monumental $9.7 billion multi-year cloud agreement with Microsoft. The company is undergoing a radical transformation, shifting its core business from cryptocurrency mining to becoming a major player in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Two colossal deals announced in quick succession are fueling the market turbulence and represent a complete strategic overhaul for the company.

• A $5.8 billion hardware procurement agreement with Dell has been secured to build out the necessary infrastructure.
• The centerpiece is the Microsoft partnership, valued at $9.7 billion, under which IREN will provide GPU computing power specifically designed for AI workloads, utilizing NVIDIA's GB300 chips.

This strategic shift involves an aggressive expansion plan. Management intends to scale its GPU fleet to 140,000 units by the end of 2026. The anticipated recurring annual revenue from this new AI cloud division is projected to reach $1.94 billion. This forecast stands in stark contrast to the company's most recent quarterly results, where total revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 came in at $240 million, though this already represented a significant 355 percent increase year-over-year.

Wall Street's Deep Divisions

The company's bold new direction has created a sharp divide among market analysts, leading to conflicting investment advice and contributing to the stock's instability.

• Compass Point has issued the most bullish assessment, setting a price target of $105.
• JMP Securities maintains a positive outlook with an $80 price target.
• In contrast, JP Morgan expresses deep skepticism, valuing the stock at just $39 and assigning it an "Underweight" rating.

This enormous discrepancy in valuation—a spread of $66 between the highest and lowest targets—highlights the market's uncertainty, torn between the promise of guaranteed Microsoft revenue and the significant execution risks associated with such a rapid and capital-intensive expansion.

Technical Pressure After Rapid Ascent

From a technical analysis perspective, the equity is currently trading in a precarious position. Following a steep ascent this week that briefly pushed the share price toward the $50 level, profit-taking activity has now emerged. The stock is experiencing substantial intraday volatility, oscillating between daily highs and lows. Trading volume has exceeded 26 million shares, underscoring investor anxiety.

Market observers are now closely watching whether the support level around $46 will hold or if a deeper correction is imminent. One fact is clear: IREN has fundamentally reinvented itself, transitioning from a cryptocurrency miner to a high-growth, high-risk investment centered on ambitious artificial intelligence infrastructure goals.