IREN's AI Client Base Expands: Is Growth Becoming More Durable?

IREN Limited’s IREN expanding AI client base is increasingly pointing to a more durable growth profile, reducing reliance on any single anchor client. Beyond the highly visible $9.7 billion Microsoft AI cloud agreement, the company has added several multi-year AI cloud customers, including Together AI, Fluidstack and Fireworks AI. These wins are expected to contribute more than $500 million in AI Cloud ARR by early fiscal 2026, even before Microsoft-related revenues scale materially.

The impact of diversification is now evident in IREN’s operating metrics. In the first quarter of fiscal 2026, the company posted a fifth straight quarter of record revenue, reaching $240 million, suggesting growth is becoming more consistent rather than event-driven. Management also pointed to pre-contracted GPU deployments at its Canadian facilities, a clear indicator of forward demand and improved revenue predictability across its AI customer base.

Industry dynamics are increasingly supportive of IREN’s positioning. AI compute demand is surging across hyperscalers, AI-native labs and enterprise users, while supply remains bottlenecked by limited power availability and data center readiness. In this situation, IREN’s vertically integrated platform, which controls power, land, data centers and GPU infrastructure, provides a clear edge, enabling faster customer onboarding and enhanced pricing leverage.

Looking ahead, IREN’s roadmap to 140,000 GPUs by the end of 2026 underscores the depth of its long-term growth runway. This capacity positions IREN to pursue approximately $3.4 billion in total AI Cloud ARR by year-end 2026, spanning the Microsoft agreement, existing GPU capacity and new AI customer wins.

How IREN’s Rivals Are Broadening Their AI Client Base

CoreWeave CRWV is one of the most aggressive AI cloud players, specializing in purpose-built GPU infrastructure for hyperscalers and AI labs. CoreWeave reported a $55.6 billion revenue backlog in the third quarter of 2025, up 271% year over year, driven by expanded contracts with customers such as OpenAI, Meta and multiple hyperscalers. Importantly, CoreWeave noted that nine of its ten largest customers now have multiple contracts, indicating the growing expansion and depth of the AI client base despite the risk of chronic concentration.

TeraWulf WULF is expanding its AI footprint through a long-term joint venture with Fluidstack, positioning TeraWulf as a power- and infrastructure-focused HPC provider. The partnership targets high-density compute demand under long-duration contracts, with the JV valued at roughly $9.5 billion over 25 years. However, most of TeraWulf’s planned capacity additions of 250 to 500 MW annually are unlikely to be fully operational before 2026, which will limit near-term AI revenue growth compared to IREN's rapid ramp.

IREN’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of IREN have soared 292% in the past year, outperforming the broader Zacks Finance sector’s return of 18.2% and the Zacks Financial Miscellaneous Services industry’s decline of 6.2%.

IREN’s One-Year Price Performance

IREN shares are overvalued, as suggested by the Value Score of D. In terms of forward price/sales, IREN is trading at 6.18X compared with the industry’s 3.36X.

IREN’s Valuation

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for IREN’s fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at 79 cents per share, marking a sharp year-over-year improvement from just 4 cents. However, the fiscal 2027 earnings estimate of $1.00 per share indicates year-over-year growth of 27.63%. Remarkably, consensus estimates for fiscal 2026 have remained stable over the past 30 days, while projections for fiscal 2027 have surged nearly threefold during the same period.

IREN currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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