IREN Limited
IREN Stock Crashes Nearly 19% to New Low as Microsoft Data Center Delay Report Rattles AI Cloud Investors

Shares of IREN Ltd. plunged nearly 19% on Thursday to a fresh 52-week low, after a report linked delays at the AI cloud provider's flagship Texas campus to a spending shortfall at key customer Microsoft.

IREN shares fell $4.09, or 18.85%, to $17.62 in Thursday trading, with about 46.6 million shares changing hands. The drop left the company's market value at about $7.1 billion, and the stock is down about 68% over the past year.

Microsoft concerns

IREN shares plunged amid a broad technology selloff, with a Bloomberg report highlighting growing concerns at Microsoft over delays and execution risks among its neocloud partners.

The report focused on IREN's main Texas site. A report citing unnamed sources said delays at IREN's Childress site led Microsoft to push back capital expenditures it had planned for the September quarter.

Microsoft and IREN officials met last week and negotiated a revised timeline that could push completion back by several weeks or months, according to the report.

Microsoft has been pulling back from other partners as well. It walked away from several Nscale projects, including a roughly $3 billion UK data center deal delayed by grid power difficulties, and is increasingly prioritizing its own data center expansion.

Election fallout

The drop added to earlier losses. IREN closed Wednesday at $21.71, down 11.24%. AI data center stocks sold off that day after Democrats won control of Congress.

Texas politics adds risk. Bears point to a possible Texas moratorium that could complicate future expansion.

Sector under pressure

Gartner estimates that 80% of neocloud providers could be consolidated or shut down by the end of the decade.

The stock has collapsed in recent weeks. It had fallen 46.37% in a month heading into Thursday.

Earnings tonight

IREN is scheduled to release fiscal first-quarter 2027 results after the market close on Nov. 5. Investors will focus on revenue generation from installed capacity and customer deployment acceptance.

Analysts remain optimistic. MarketBeat data show an average rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average target price of $77.69. Bernstein maintained a Buy view ahead of earnings.