IREN Limited experienced a sharp rally in midday trading on the Nasdaq Wednesday, climbing 9.4% to $65.42 after the data center operator disclosed a $1.6 billion agreement with Dell Technologies to acquire hardware for its Texas facility. The stock briefly touched $65.78 earlier in the session, with trading volume exceeding 44 million shares, pushing the company's market capitalization to approximately $21.8 billion.
The deal, signed by IREN's IE US Hardware 4 Inc. subsidiary with Dell Marketing L.P. on May 19, is designed to accelerate the deployment of Nvidia's Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) for artificial intelligence customers. IREN plans to commission the Blackwell systems at its Childress, Texas site in early 2027, with payments made in installments following each hardware shipment.
IREN is aggressively transitioning from its roots in bitcoin mining—which relies on energy-intensive data centers—to a broader AI cloud services business. The company has secured a five-year, $3.4 billion managed-services AI cloud contract that the new Dell hardware will support. After installation, IREN expects its annualized run-rate revenue (ARR) to increase to $4.4 billion from $3.7 billion.
Daniel Roberts, IREN's co-founder and co-CEO, emphasized the importance of speed in the AI infrastructure race. 'Time-to-compute is everything,' he said, noting that Dell will supply hardware at the 'scale and speed' the market demands. 'Every deployment we complete makes the next one faster,' Roberts added.
The Dell agreement builds on IREN's May 7 contract with Nvidia, under which IREN will provide managed GPU cloud services for Nvidia's internal AI and research work. That contract also includes orchestration and cluster-management software from Mirantis. Earlier this month, Nvidia and IREN announced plans to collaborate on up to 5 gigawatts of AI infrastructure, with Nvidia receiving a five-year option to purchase up to 30 million IREN shares at $70 each—a deal that could generate $2.1 billion for IREN under certain conditions.
The broader market for data center and crypto-mining infrastructure stocks also saw gains. Cipher Digital rose roughly 4.0%, Core Scientific climbed 3.5%, and TeraWulf advanced 2.3%. Dell edged up 0.8%, while Nvidia slipped 1.3%.
However, the path to profitability is not without risks. IREN cautioned that its $4.4 billion ARR target is not fully contracted and depends on GPU availability, utilization rates, pricing, and timely hardware deliveries. Financing remains a key concern, as the company is just two weeks away from closing a $3.0 billion convertible note offering—debt that could convert into equity and dilute existing shareholders.
The Dell order underscores IREN's pivot from cryptocurrency infrastructure to AI cloud services. The critical question for investors is whether IREN can secure chip shipments, manage financing, and generate revenue fast enough to justify its current valuation.
