IREN falls 17% as AI-cloud contract brings heavy funding demands

IREN shares plunged 16.95% to $18.03 on Thursday despite the company signing a five-year AI Cloud contract valued at approximately $22 million per megawatt. Blockonomi reported that the customer will prepay 90% of the GPU costs involved, reducing IREN’s immediate hardware funding exposure. The stock subsequently rebounded 15.81% to $20.88, leaving it sharply higher than the session low but still volatile. The contract adds to a broader AI Cloud business that Crypto.news said generated $200 million in sales. That growth is significant for a company also associated with Bitcoin mining, but Crypto.news reported a 58% drop in mining revenue. It also said Microsoft-related delivery timing will shift to 2027, adding detail that Blockonomi’s summary did not provide and raising questions about the pace at which AI infrastructure will be delivered.

The two accounts present complementary concerns rather than a direct disagreement. Blockonomi highlighted the customer’s 90% GPU-cost prepayment as a favorable feature of the agreement, while Crypto.news emphasized the sharp contraction in mining revenue and the revised Microsoft-related timeline. Neither outlet reported that the new contract had stopped IREN from signing or that its AI expansion had been canceled.

IREN’s balance-sheet position provides further context. Blockonomi reported net debt rising to $4.43 billion as cash reserves declined to $3.52 billion. Against that backdrop, the five-year agreement’s per-megawatt value and customer prepayment may support execution of the AI buildout, but the scale of the company’s debt remains material.

The wider crypto market was comparatively subdued during the report: total capitalization stood at $2.61 trillion, while the overall market was flat. Bitcoin traded at $75,718, down 0.39% over 24 hours and 1.75% over seven days, with a $1.52 trillion market capitalization. The Fear & Greed index stood at 28, indicating a Fear reading; Bitcoin network hashrate was 1039 EH/s and difficulty was 148.4T, according to mempool.space. The next indicators are execution and financing rather than the initial contract announcement alone: IREN’s AI Cloud revenue, the 2027 Microsoft-related delivery schedule, its mining revenue trend, and whether cash and net debt improve as the contracted infrastructure is deployed. The live data show no broad crypto sell-off accompanying IREN’s stock move, leaving company-specific financing and operational details central to the story.