IREN just got a $2.8B AI boost

The AI cloud side hustle just got real

IREN shares were popping in premarket after the company said it had locked in $2.8 billion in multi-year cloud services contracts with a lineup that includes Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Perplexity. That’s not pocket change — and it’s a pretty loud signal that the demand for AI infrastructure is still acting like it’s on espresso.

Why investors care

The company also raised its year-end AI Cloud annualized run-rate revenue forecast from $3.7 billion to more than $4 billion. Even better for the balance sheet crowd: about 85% of that target is now under contract, and customer prepayments are expected to cover roughly 45% of GPU capital costs. Translation: less hand-wringing about funding and more evidence that the revenue story is getting harder to shrug off.

But don’t ignore the fine print

The stock was still trading below both its 20-day and 50-day moving averages, which tells you the market hasn’t exactly declared victory. So yes, the contract news is juicy. But traders are still watching whether the momentum can actually stick, or if this is another “great headline, messy chart” situation.

Big picture: IREN is trying to turn AI infrastructure from hype into a repeatable money machine. And for once, the math is starting to sound a lot less imaginary.