IREN Secures $2.8B Financing and AI Lab Contract as Shift From Bitcoin Weighs on Earnings
IREN signs multi-year AI lab deal, secures $2.8B financing, but posts $684M quarterly loss on bitcoin hardware retirement.
Data center operator IREN announced Thursday that it has entered into a new multi-year agreement with an unnamed frontier artificial intelligence lab, while also securing $2.8 billion in fresh financing to support its AI chip acquisitions.
The company's shares dropped more than 7% in extended trading following the release of its quarterly results, which showed a swing to a net loss driven by costs associated with retiring bitcoin mining equipment as part of its strategic pivot toward AI cloud services.
IREN reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $684 million, a sharp reversal from net income of $176.9 million in the same period last year. The loss included a $450.4 million non-cash impairment charge, primarily tied to the decommissioning of its bitcoin mining hardware.
Revenue for the quarter fell 27% to $137.2 million, though that figure came in slightly above the $136.8 million average estimate from analysts polled by LSEG.
The new financing package includes a $2.4 billion facility led by asset management firm Blue Owl and bond investment giant Pacific Investment Management Company. The identity of the AI lab that signed the multi-year contract was not disclosed.
Looking ahead, IREN said its compute capacity for 2026 is largely sold out, and the company is already in late-stage discussions with prospective customers regarding a significant portion of its 2027 capacity.