Jefferies Initiates IREN With $79 Price Target, Sees 30% Upside on AI Cloud Strategy

According to Jefferies this week, the investment bank initiated coverage of IREN, a bitcoin miner-turned-AI infrastructure provider, with a $79 price target implying roughly 30% upside from Wednesday's trading level near $60.50.

Jefferies projects IREN's strategy of operating its own AI cloud infrastructure will generate higher cash flows than a data center leasing model over a 10-20 year horizon, citing secured access to approximately 6 gigawatts of global power with only around 10% currently utilized. The firm estimates IREN's GPU cloud buildout and Microsoft and Nvidia contracts could deliver $3.1 billion in annual recurring revenue.

The rating comes as IREN expands globally, having announced the acquisition of Spanish data center developer Nostrum this week, adding roughly 490 megawatts of grid power in Europe, and earlier unveiled plans for an 800-megawatt data center campus in South Australia to serve Asia-Pacific AI demand.