Here's what's driving Iren's stock higher after a brutal selloff

By Claudia Assis and Emily Bary

Iren announces a new cloud-computing deal and notes that much of its backlog is tied to 'investment-grade counterparties'

Iren discussed new business deals in its earnings report on Thursday.

Iren investors got a small measure of relief on Thursday when the neocloud company posted results for its September quarter.

Shares of Iren have been among the most pummeled in the technology sector's recent selloff, losing 55% over the past month, including a 17% drop in Thursday's session alone. Like fellow neocloud company CoreWeave (CRWV), Iren (IREN) rents out access to artificial-intelligence computing capacity, making it a focal point for investors worried about the sustainability of data-center spending.

Iren struck a confident tone in its earnings report on Thursday afternoon, noting that its "AI cloud" revenue nearly tripled in the latest quarter to $200 million.

Furthermore, after the quarter ended, the company locked in a five-year contract worth about $22 million per megawatt of computing capacity. The unnamed customer prepaid for 90% of the capital spending required for the chips associated with the deal. Iren also signed a short-term contract worth $40 million per megawatt.

"We own the land, the power and the data centers under all of it, which gives us more ways to fund growth and lets us set its pace," Iren co-CEO Daniel Roberts said in a statement.

Iren shares jumped more than 10% in after-hours action on Thursday.

Overall, the company posted quarterly revenue of $228 million, up 66% from just three months earlier. That matched the FactSet consensus view. Iren posted a $263 million net loss, versus a $684 million loss in the June quarter.

The company also offered an update on its financial standing, pointing to $20.6 billion worth of assets. Iren noted its revenue and assets are "underpinned by customer contracts with Nvidia, Microsoft and 13 other customers." Two-thirds of the company's revenue backlog is tied to "investment-grade counterparties," according to the release.

The post-midterms tech rout has been especially vicious toward neocloud companies, but Iren has a few things working in its favor, according to analysts.

For one, despite market jitters about the election of a Democratic governor in Texas who promised a tougher stance on data centers, there could be a time when the state's approved data-center capacity "may end up commanding a scarcity premium," Bernstein analysts said on Wednesday.

And Iren specifically enjoys a diversified customer base as well as a "well calibrated" financial management, the analysts said.

-Claudia Assis -Emily Bary

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11-05-26 2007ET