IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ:IREN) shares slid in premarket trading Thursday as the company ramped up its AI ambitions with a major GPU order from Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), even as investors grapple with questions around a multibillion-dollar equity filing and potential shareholder dilution.
IREN Orders 50,000 Nvidia GPUs
IREN said on Wednesday it signed purchase agreements for more than 50,000 Nvidia B300 GPUs, a move the company says will take its installed and contracted fleet to 150,000 units.
The company tied the buy to faster availability of compute capacity as customers advance contracts in the AI cloud market.
IREN said the added GPUs are slated to roll out in stages during the second half of 2026. The deployments are expected to use existing air-cooled sites in Mackenzie, British Columbia, and Childress, Texas.
The company said a 150,000-GPU footprint could translate into AI cloud annualized run-rate revenue above $3.7 billion by the end of 2026.
IREN also noted its Canal Flats and Childress facilities have room to absorb more GPUs over time.
Funding Strategy And Capital Spending
IREN also disclosed an at-the-market equity program that it said is part of its capital management approach. The company said the ATM is meant to sit alongside other current and future financing options.
Over the past eight months, IREN said it has lined up $9.3 billion in funding through a mix that includes customer prepayments, convertible notes, GPU leasing, and GPU financing.
The company expects to use those sources, along with others, to fund about $3.5 billion in incremental capital spending tied to orders expected in the second half of 2026.
IREN said payment terms are set up so payments occur after shipment, which it said supports working capital efficiency.
The company added that future hardware buying will be timed to commercial progress and available capital.
Jim Chanos Questions Equity Filing
Recently, short-seller Jim Chanos questioned IREN after the company expanded its ATM equity offering to $6 billion through a March 5 filing. This move represents nearly half of its current market capitalization.
Posting on X, Chanos said some investors believe the large equity filing signals an imminent deal. Still, he argued that any material event would typically require disclosure alongside such a filing.
He also flagged concerns about the company’s guidance, noting that IREN raised ARR expectations for the December 2026 quarter but did not reaffirm its $500 million digital revenue ARR target for the current quarter.
The filing also revealed that the company has already sold more than 66 million shares for about $1 billion, raising concerns among critics about potential dilution as IREN shifts from Bitcoin mining toward AI cloud services.
IREN Price Action: IREN shares were down 5.31% at $41.51 during premarket trading on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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