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IREN posts record quarterly revenue as Bitcoin mining and AI initiatives accelerate
IREN reported its strongest quarter yet, delivering $187.3 million in revenue for the period ended June 30 and driving fiscal-year revenue to a record $501 million. The results sent the miner's shares sharply higher, rising nearly 14% in after-hours trading following the announcement. Quarterly revenue jumped 226% year‑over‑year, and the company swung back into profitability with net income of $176.9 million.
Stock reaction and market context
IREN shares closed up about 3.1% at $23.04 on the day of the release and gained an additional 13.9% after hours, according to Google Finance. The stock has been on an upward trend this month, repeatedly hitting new highs as investors priced in both stronger BTC mining output and the company’s expanding artificial intelligence (AI) business.
IREN’s change in price on Thursday. Source: Google Finance
Bitcoin mining strength and capacity details
The quarter’s performance was largely underpinned by robust Bitcoin (BTC) mining operations. In July, IREN surpassed industry heavyweight MARA Holdings in monthly BTC production, mining 728 BTC versus MARA’s 703 BTC. The company reported 50 exahashes per second (EH/s) of installed Bitcoin mining capacity, though it has temporarily paused further expansion to prioritize AI deployment.
This shift mirrors a broader trend across crypto miners: as mining difficulty climbs and energy costs squeeze margins, many operators are upgrading to more efficient hardware, diversifying power sources, and redeploying assets to AI compute workloads to boost utilization and revenue.
Expanding AI services via NVIDIA partnership
IREN significantly boosted its GPU footprint during the quarter, increasing GPU count to 1,900 — a 132% year‑over‑year rise — and earning status as a “Preferred Partner” to NVIDIA. That designation should give IREN more direct access to NVIDIA’s GPUs, helping the miner scale its AI infrastructure and GPU-based services, such as machine learning training, large language model (LLM) development, and GPU rentals for enterprise compute.
IREN monetizes AI by renting GPU capacity for ML training and high-performance inference workloads. The company plans to invest roughly $200 million to grow its GPU fleet to about 10,900 units in the coming months, targeting $200 million to $250 million in annualized AI revenue by December. If achieved, that would represent an eight- to tenfold increase relative to the company’s AI revenue for April–June. Longer term, IREN aims to deploy up to 60,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs at its British Columbia facility in Canada.
Operational, market and legal track record
IREN’s rise follows a turbulent period in which short-seller Culper Research called the company “wildly overvalued,” critiquing its AI ambitions and claiming insufficient investment to compete. Culper likened IREN’s position to entering a high-performance race with inefficient equipment.
Excerpt from Culper Research’s report on IREN in July 2024. Source: Culper Research
After hitting lows as the stock slid from $12.31 to $5.59 in April, IREN has rallied sharply — up more than 300% in recent months — on the back of stronger operational metrics and progress in AI.
On the legal front, IREN recently finalized a confidential settlement with creditor NYDIG, ending a nearly three‑year dispute over roughly $105 million in defaulted equipment loans tied to about 35,000 Antminer S19 units. Resolving that dispute removes a significant overhang and supports the company’s strategic pivot toward diversified compute revenue.
What this means for crypto investors
For crypto investors and industry watchers, IREN’s results illustrate how Bitcoin miners are adapting to evolving market economics. By combining traditional BTC mining — measured in BTC produced and exahash capacity — with GPU-based AI services, miners like IREN aim to improve asset utilization, diversify revenue streams, and mitigate the margin pressures from rising mining difficulty and energy costs.
Key takeaways include sustained BTC production leadership, aggressive GPU expansion backed by a strategic NVIDIA partnership, a concrete near-term AI revenue target, and resolution of long-running creditor litigation — all factors that contributed to the stock’s strong post-quarter performance.
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