IREN Stands to Win Big in Anthropic’s $15 Billion Buildout — But Its CEOs’ Payday Is Rattling Investors
Published on 07/06/2026 at 08:44 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The race to power artificial intelligence in Australia is heating up, and IREN has placed itself squarely in the middle of the action. Anthropic, the high-profile AI developer, is planning a massive expansion of data centers down under, targeting 1.4 gigawatts of new capacity by the end of 2027 — a figure that nearly matches the country’s entire current operational stock. The project carries a price tag of up to $15 billion, and IREN is among a handful of contenders that include industry heavyweights CDC Data Centres and AirTrunk. Market observers expect the sprawling contract to be divided among several winners, with final decisions expected in roughly six weeks, around mid-August.
IREN’s transformation from a pure-play Bitcoin miner into a specialized AI infrastructure provider has been nothing short of breakneck. The company already holds a supply agreement for 200 megawatts with Microsoft, and a multibillion-dollar managed cloud deal with Nvidia built around the Blackwell architecture is worth an additional $3.4 billion. That pivot is now entering a critical new chapter as IREN eyes its first Australian campus in South Australia, a project announced in June with a target capacity of 800 megawatts. The company has also been poaching senior talent from Oracle and Google to sharpen its AI?cloud product strategy.
Yet for all the operational progress, a governance storm is brewing at the top. The board recently approved a compensation package of restricted stock units for co?founders William and Daniel Roberts that has been reported at both $700 million and $800 million — a jaw?dropping figure for a company that posted a quarterly loss of $155 million in the prior fiscal year. The controversy deepened when news surfaced that IREN had also signed a $50?million?a?year sponsorship deal with the Golden State Warriors. To many shareholders, these moves signal a troubling lack of capital discipline at a time when the company is burning cash on a costly expansion.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying IREN?
The market’s reaction has been swift and severe. The stock closed at €36.35 on Friday, down 9.5 percent over the past week and 23.04 percent over the past month. In dollar terms, IREN last traded at $39.20, a fraction of the consensus analyst target of roughly $82 and well below Bernstein’s $100 price objective. The technical picture is equally bleak: the 14?day relative strength index sits at 35.2, near oversold territory, while the share price is 22.22 percent below its 50?day moving average of €46.74 and 13.26 percent below the 200?day average. Annualized volatility has surged to 93.43 percent, underscoring the nervousness surrounding the name.
None of this has dampened analyst enthusiasm, at least on the fundamentals. IREN surprised the market with stronger?than?expected earnings per share in its latest quarter, and the Bernstein rating remains bullish. The stock is 47.01 percent off its 12?month high of €68.61, but over the same period it still shows a gain of 151.28 percent — a testament to the lingering AI euphoria. Since the start of the year, however, the share price is nearly flat, down 0.32 percent. The gap between those two numbers tells the story of a valuation in flux.
Competition is adding another layer of pressure. Reports that Meta Platforms plans to commercialize its spare AI computing capacity under the name “Meta Compute” threaten to squeeze margins for specialized providers like IREN. But IREN holds a trump card that few rivals can replicate: already approved power capacity at sites such as Childress in West Texas, where it is on track to reach 1.4 gigawatts of grid?connected capacity. Access to electricity has become scarcer than the chips themselves, giving IREN a tangible advantage that no compensation controversy can erase.
The coming months will determine whether the company’s infrastructure story can outrun its boardroom drama. The Anthropic decision in August is a potential catalyst that could cement IREN’s position in the Asia?Pacific region, while the Nvidia Blackwell deal must start translating into revenue. For now, investors are left weighing two very different pictures: a company with real assets and real capacity, and a management team that has chosen to reward itself on a scale that many find hard to square with the capital demands of the AI arms race.
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