IREN, the Nasdaq-listed bitcoin miner turned AI cloud provider, reported cash of about $7.6 billion, including roughly $1.7 billion of restricted cash, money set aside for specific purposes.
Management says that cash, together with committed financing for graphics processing units (GPUs), the chips that power AI, and customer prepayments, gives it roughly $14 billion of funding capacity.
In August, Microsoft accepted the first Horizon deployment under a multiyear arrangement to supply its Azure cloud business.
The funding and the Microsoft deal reduce the uncertainty over demand as IREN shifts its sites, capital and staff from crypto mining to AI infrastructure.
Management is targeting about 300 megawatts of IT load, the power drawn by computing equipment, in 2026 and 800 megawatts in 2027.
Capital expenditure, the money spent on building and equipping sites, is expected to reach $25 billion to $30 billion in fiscal 2027.
Third-party reporting says IREN has secured more than 5 gigawatts of power and major contracts worth about $13.1 billion.
Investors remain divided.
Hedge funds increased their exposure, with 69 holding the stock in the second quarter against 53 in the first.
Value Aligned Research Advisors raised its stake to about 8.47 million shares.
Short interest, the number of shares sold by investors betting the price will fall, remained high at 93.61 million shares.
That represents about 25.01% of the float, the shares available for public trading, and 2.06 days to cover, the time it would take short sellers to buy back their positions at average trading volumes.
The near-term test is operational.
IREN must turn its funding and contracts into commissioned, liquid-cooled GPU capacity on the schedule that underpins the Microsoft deal, starting with its 2026 and 2027 delivery targets.
