Data center firm IREN signs new deal with frontier AI lab; quarterly loss hits shares
Data center firm IREN signs new deal with frontier AI lab; quarterly loss hits shares Aug 27 (Reuters) - Data center firm IREN IREN.O said on Thursday it has signed a new multi-year contract with a frontier AI lab and secured $2.8 billion in new financing to help fund its AI chip purchases.
IREN shares fell more than 7% in extended trading after the company swung to a quarterly loss, driven by costs tied to retiring bitcoin mining hardware as it shifts to AI cloud services.
Here are more details:
The new financing deal includes a $2.4 billion facility led by asset management firm Blue Owl and bond giant Pacific Investment Management Company.
The company did not disclose the name of the AI lab.
IREN reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $684 million, compared with net income of $176.9 million a year earlier.
Revenue fell 27% to $137.2 million but was slightly above analysts' average estimate of $136.8 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The quarterly net loss included a $450.4 million non-cash impairment, primarily related to the decommissioning of bitcoin mining hardware.
IREN said its 2026 compute capacity was largely sold out, and that it was already in late-stage discussions with new customers over a significant portion of capacity for 2027.
(Reporting by Anzar Mehraj and Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
((Anzar.Mehraj@thomsonreuters.com;))
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