IREN Stock Soars. Microsoft’s Capacity Problem Might Just Be Solved.

The new Microsoft data center building in Middenmeer, the Netherlands. (Dreamstime)

Key Points

• Iren’s U.S.-listed shares surged 25% after announcing a $9.7 billion deal to sell artificial-intelligence cloud capacity to Microsoft.
• The five-year agreement grants Microsoft access to Nvidia GB300 GPUs and includes a 20% prepayment credited in later years.
• Iren also entered a separate $5.8 billion agreement with Dell Technologies to purchase the necessary GPUs for the deal.

Iren stock was soaring on Monday after the Australian company agreed a $9.7 billion deal to sell artificial-intelligence cloud capacity to Microsoft.

Iren’s U.S.-listed shares surged 18% to $71.88 in early trading. Microsoft stock was 0.9% higher, and the S&P 500 was up 0.3%.

Created with Highcharts 9.0.1Iren Ltd.Stock ticker: IRENSource: FactSetAs of Nov. 3

Created with Highcharts 9.0.1Oct. 2025Oct. 31455055606570$75

The five-year agreement will give Microsoft access to Nvidia GB300 graphics processing units (GPUs). It includes a 20% prepayment that will be credited in years three to five of the deal, Iren said.

Increasing its access to AI chips is important for Microsoft, which said in its recent earnings report that demand for its Azure cloud-computing business continues to outstrip its capacity. Microsoft is boosting AI capacity by 80% this year and plans to double its data-center operations in the next two years, CEO Satya Nadella said.

Iren also said it had entered into a separate agreement to buy the GPUs from Dell Technologies for $5.8 billion. Dell stock climbed 3.4% in Monday’s premarket.

The hardware will be deployed in phases through 2026 at Iren’s Texas campus in Childress, alongside the delivery of new data centers to support about 200 megawatts of computing power.

Iren said it will fund the capital expenditures associated with the deal through a combination of existing cash, customer prepayments, operating cashflows and additional financing.

The Microsoft deal looks set to launch Iren into the ranks of the biggest so-called neoclouds — companies specializing in providing the infrastructure for artificial-intelligence computing. Like other notable neclouds such as CoreWeave , Iren began as a cryptocurrency miner but has increasingly pivoted toward AI.

“This is a game-changing deal for IREN, as it gets them an anchor tenant that we believe is critical for IREN for get the customer acquisition flywheel going,” wrote Cantor analyst Brett Knoblauch in a research note. “We are now more confident than ever that all of IREN’s capacity will ultimately be used for AI/HPC [high-performance computing].”

Knoblauch raised his target price on Iren stock to $142 from $100, keeping an Overweight rating.

Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com and Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com