Iren Stock Has Dropped 12% in a Week. Why, and How to Play It Here.

Patrick Sanders

Thu, September 17, 2026 at 2:10 PM GMT+3 4 min read

One of the biggest challenges for the artificial intelligence buildout, surprisingly, isn't the money. Big tech companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars this year on AI infrastructure, and they seem determined to exceed that next year.

Obviously, demand is not going to be a problem. But supply is becoming an issue of its own. Nvidia (NVDA) officials have directly tied supply shortages to limiting AI revenue growth. Dell Technologies (DELL), whose stock recently hit all-time highs, would likely be doing even better if it didn't have supply shortages. Management has said the available component supply isn't enough to fulfill customer orders. And Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX (SPCX), has noted that foundries are running at top capacity.

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Now we can add Iren (IREN) — an Australian company in the data center business — to that list of companies concerned about supply shortages. CEO Daniel Robert posted on X (formerly Twitter) that it would take the industry years to build the AI infrastructure to meet the demands of current AI workloads. And as those workloads increase, the demand for capacity will only increase.

"The constraint is HBM (high-bandwidth memory), the memory that sits inside every major AI chip. Three companies make it and all three are sold out this year. A new memory plant takes years to build," he wrote. Then even after those chips are built, they need a building with power, which is another delay, he said.

"Goldmans reckons only about half the US capacity scheduled over the next two years will actually be built on time," Robert wrote.

Robert took to social media in response to calls to slow the pace of frontier AI, and argued that the risk to demand "continues to seem heavily weighted to the upside." But the debate has been weighing heavily on Iren stock, which is down nearly 12% in the last week.

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About Iren Stock

Iren, which is based in Sydney, Australia, is an interesting company. It was first known primarily for mining Bitcoin, but the growth of AI and the need for data centers to power AI workloads allowed it to become a key AI infrastructure stock.

The company plans to deliver 300 megawatts of capacity this year, and grow that to 800 MW in 2027, with data centers located in Canada, the U.S., Australia, and Spain.

Shares have been highly volatile over the last year and are currently up 21%. That's better than the S&P 500 ($SPX) in that period, but far behind a key competitor, Nebius Group (NBIS), which is up more than 120% in the same time.

Iren doesn't turn a profit right now, which is understandable — it costs a lot of money to build data centers and outfit them with expensive GPUs and CPUs. Iren stock trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 5.6, which is one-third the multiple of Nebius.

Iren Beats on Earnings

Iren's losses significantly widened from the first quarter, but the company still managed to beat analysts' expectations on the bottom line. Second-quarter revenue was $137.2 million, down from $144.8 million in Q1. The net loss was $684 million versus a loss of $247.8 million last year, and earnings per share were a loss of $0.41, while analysts had expected a loss of $0.50 per share.

Iren noted that it signed a new multi-year AI cloud contract with an unidentified frontier AI company, and had a $4 billion contracted annualized run rate at the end of the quarter for 2026 capacity. The company largely sold out its capacity for the year, including the first of four leading-edge liquid-cooled GPU deployments that it delivered to Microsoft in August.

And notably, Iren received more revenue from AI cloud services in the quarter than it did from Bitcoin mining.

Revenue Source

Q2 2026

Q1 2026

AI Cloud Services

$70.5 million

$33.6 million

Bitcoin Mining

$66.7 million

$111.2 million

Total

$137.2 million

$144.8 million

Source: Iren

"We have broadened our customer base to include hyperscalers, enterprises, AI developers and frontier labs," Robert said. "As our platform has scaled and our market position has strengthened, we have attracted leading customers and secured stronger pricing, more attractive contract terms and improved paybacks."

What Do Analysts Expect for Iren Stock?

There's no question that analysts have high expectations for Iren. Of the 15 analysts who cover the stock, 12 have "Strong Buy" ratings, and the consensus price target of $77.71 represents potential upside of 89%.

Iren is making a wise investment by shifting its focus to AI data centers — particularly as Bitcoin's price has fallen sharply in 2026. And if Bitcoin follows its traditional four-year pattern and begins to rebuild momentum again, then that will be a benefit for Iren.

But for the time being, Iren is sitting in a key position. As Robert pointed out on social media, the challenges for AI don't lie in the demand — it's the capacity. Iren should have no trouble selling out its capacity in 2027 as the company continues to build momentum and become a key player in the expansion of AI.