Nov 5 (Reuters) – IREN on Thursday beat quarterly revenue estimates on strong growth in its AI cloud business, sending its shares up more than 4% in volatile extended trading.
The AI data center firm said it was pushing back delivery dates for some infrastructure for Microsoft after the software giant requested changes to the network design, though IREN said it would not face financial penalties for delays stemming from those changes.
The delays forced IREN to push back part of the timeline for making operational its more than $4 billion annualized run-rate revenue target to January from year-end. The company said the timing could extend to the end of February.
The disclosure comes as the Windows maker tightens oversight of data-center projects run by the so-called “neocloud” firms including IREN, Nebius and Nscale amid delays and rising costs, Bloomberg News reported earlier in the day.
Microsoft is stepping away from projects it considers risky and weighing whether to sign new deals with such providers as it focuses more heavily on expanding its own data centers, according to the report.
IREN’s shares closed down about 17% on a broader selloff in AI infrastructure and data center-related stocks amid fears of tougher regulation of the technology after Democrats won control of the US Congress.
Companies such as IREN are building energy-intensive data centers they can eventually rent out to firms developing and running AI models.
IREN’s AI cloud revenue for the first quarter rose to $200 million, from $71 million in the prior three months.
The company said its assets and revenue were supported by contracts with Nvidia, Microsoft and 13 others, with roughly two-thirds of its revenue backlog tied to investment-grade counterparties.
Total revenue rose to $228 million in the quarter ended September 30, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $221.28 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.
(Reporting by Prathik Jayaprakash in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
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