IREN Ltd. shares extended a sharp two-day rally on Thursday after the AI cloud infrastructure provider announced it had delivered the first phase of its large-scale Microsoft deployment and secured Nvidia Exemplar Cloud status. The stock was trading around $46 per share in morning action, up roughly 6% on the day, following a 10% gain on Wednesday; some intraday reports put Thursday’s advance at more than 12%. Over the past five sessions, IREN has climbed roughly 22%.
The company said it completed delivery of Horizon 1, the first of four planned 50-megawatt direct-to-chip liquid-cooled AI cloud deployments being built for Microsoft at its Childress, Texas campus. The work forms part of a five-year, $9.7 billion cloud services agreement announced in November 2025. Microsoft formally accepted the completed phase, marking the first milestone under the deal.
IREN also announced that Horizon 1 achieved Nvidia Exemplar Cloud status after Nvidia tested the company’s Nvidia GB300 NVL72 deployment. The designation indicates the deployment meets Nvidia’s performance and operational standards for next-generation AI infrastructure. IREN said it remains on track to expand its AI cloud platform to 480 megawatts of gross capacity during 2026, before increasing to 1.2 gigawatts in 2027.
Daniel Roberts, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of IREN, called the delivery a demonstration of the company’s vertically integrated model. “Delivering Horizon 1 demonstrates the strength of our vertically integrated model and our ability to execute complex AI infrastructure projects at speed and scale,” he said, thanking more than 3,000 site team members. IREN expects to deliver the remaining three Horizon deployments later this year.
The move comes amid broader enthusiasm for AI infrastructure. Nvidia recently announced a $500 billion financing initiative with BlackRock and Blackstone, while Riot Platforms disclosed a $9 billion agreement with Anthropic and CoreWeave reported quarterly revenue of $2.6 billion and a $104 billion backlog. Wall Street analysts remain mostly bullish: Bernstein has an Outperform rating and $100 target, H.C. Wainwright is at Buy with a $90 target, and Compass Point has a Buy rating with a $105 target. Bernstein noted that investors remain skeptical about former Bitcoin miners such as IREN becoming AI cloud providers, but argued IREN’s model could generate $10 million to $20 million per megawatt versus roughly $2 million to $2.5 million for traditional colocation leasing.
