Shares of Bitcoin miner IREN Limited (NASDAQ: IREN) surged today as investors embraced the company’s transition from a dedicated bitcoin miner to a comprehensive AI-cloud operator.
The stock saw a leap into double-digit gains following two distinct analyst reports that reinforced confidence in the company’s strategy. Additionally, IREN revealed a substantial GPU acquisition that significantly alters its revenue trajectory.
IREN has climbed 110% over the past month, reaching $48.75, including a 16.6% increase today, and has skyrocketed over 530% in the last six months.
What’s Driving IREN’s Surge?
The key factors are clear: IREN has announced that it has doubled its AI Cloud capacity to around 23,000 GPUs after a ~$674 million investment in 12,400 units — comprising NVIDIA B300s and B200s, along with AMD MI350Xs. The company is projecting this segment to exceed $500 million in annual run-rate revenue by Q1 2026. These figures translate a potential “AI pivot” into a concrete capacity and revenue target that investors can evaluate.
Wall Street’s response was swift. Bernstein raised its price target over threefold to $75, describing this move as a “breakout” fueled by exponential AI cloud growth, suggesting about 80% upside from the previous close, as reported by CoinDesk.
Simultaneously, Arete Research began coverage with a Buy rating and a $78 target, supporting the view that the company’s combined data-center and mining presence uniquely positions it in the market.
The analyst ratings — from two firms with notably different perspectives — propelled the stock into the top contenders on crypto-infrastructure lists.
Management at IREN has been clear about its plans to expand liquid-cooled, high-density AI facilities (including a proposed 75MW direct-to-chip AI site in Texas), and intends to align this physical capacity with the company’s current low-cost energy assets.
Possessing power, land, and data centers allows IREN to capture a greater share of the economics per megawatt than miners that merely lease capacity to hyperscalers.
This vertical integration is crucial to Bernstein’s reassessment thesis.
The market’s enthusiasm also reflects a balanced perspective: IREN is not abandoning bitcoin. The company maintains one of the largest self-operated mining fleets in the U.S., and analysts highlight the miner’s significant bitcoin cash flow — approximately hundreds of millions in EBITDA at current price levels — as a funding source for AI-related capital expenditures.
This flexibility — switching between mining and GPU hosting based on which option offers higher returns per megawatt — is key to investors’ willingness to apply a premium valuation to IREN’s new AI ventures.
