IREN Stock Soars on Microsoft Deal Milestone

IREN stock rose sharply after the company announced it had delivered and received Microsoft's formal acceptance of Horizon 1, the first phase of its five-year, $9.7 billion cloud services contract.

The milestone also earned IREN a notable technical credential from Nvidia, adding weight to the company's pivot away from crypto mining and toward large-scale AI computing.

Iris Energy, now known as IREN, is in the middle of an active pivot: still mining Bitcoin today, but winding that business down and redirecting cash flow into AI infrastructure.

The company's delivery of Horizon 1, a 50MW direct-to-chip liquid-cooled AI cloud deployment at its Texas campus, represents roughly 25% of the targeted 200MW under the Microsoft agreement.

IREN Co-Founder and Co-CEO Daniel Roberts credited the delivery to the company's 'vertically integrated model,' which keeps data center design, engineering, and construction under IREN's direct control rather than outsourced.