Most Iren (IREN +2.06%) investors probably first heard about the stock this year as its price ramped up more than 1,400% from its April low of $5.12 to a November high of $76.87 on enthusiasm about the Australia-based data center owner/operator's potential to benefit from the need for its services related to artificial intelligence (AI). While the stock price has dropped about 40% since hitting those highs, it is still up 367% for the year.
That's a lot of movement for a stock that most investors just learned about, so the volatility can feel quite stressful. However, if you want to hold your Iren shares, want to possibly buy the recent dip, or at least know what to do next, knowing these two details is critical.
Image source: Getty Images.
Iren's growth is not just Microsoft-related
After a year of investors speculating and hoping, Iren finally announced a big deal with a tech company. Microsoft (MSFT +1.47%) signed a five-year, $9.7 billion deal in early November for 200 megawatts of Iren's AI data center capacity. That deal also includes a 20% prepayment, which helps Iren fund additional data centers without diluting investors.
Iren's most enthusiastic investors know about that deal. However, the company also has multiyear deals with Together.ai, Fluidstack, and Fireworks AI.
The Fluidstack deal is notable due to the company's connection with Alphabet (GOOG 0.01%) (GOOGL +0.31%). Alphabet financially supported Fluidstack in its multiyear deal with Cipher Mining (CIFR 0.45%), which confirms that Iren is on Alphabet's radar.
Iren said in its third-quarter press release that those contracts are supporting its $500 million AI cloud annual recurring revenue goal, which it expects to reach by the end of 2026's first quarter. The company also believes it can earn $3.4 billion in annual recurring revenue from this segment by the end of 2026.
In its Q3 presentation, Iren told investors that its AI cloud platform is "now servicing a broad range of customers from hyperscalers, to model developers, to AI-native enterprises." Big tech companies are great clients, but Iren still has a way to grow beyond waiting for trillion-dollar tech giants to sign contracts.
NASDAQ: IREN
Key Data Points
Iren's gigawatt pipeline is massive
Iren needs energy to support its lucrative deals, and the company has already established itself as a top AI data center provider. AI data centers are more advanced than traditional data centers, which are more general and help with things like web hosting and data storage.
Iren's ability to scale AI data centers is a big advantage, but its multi-gigawatt pipeline is another massive catalyst. The Iren deal with Microsoft covers 200 megawatts, and Iren has already secured 3.2 gigawatts (3,200 megawatts).
It's already earning $2.5 billion in annual recurring revenue from 350 megawatts. All 3.2 gigawatts should be available by late 2027, with some of that energy being available by mid-2026.
That can translate into more than $20 billion in annual recurring revenue by 2030, and it's not like Iren will stop building once its 3.2 gigawatts are bringing in cash. McKinsey forecasted that AI data center capacity will almost triple to 219 gigawatts by 2030 to address rising demand, and Iren looks like one of the leaders adding to that overall capacity.
