IREN Reports Earnings, Plans to Exit Bitcoin Mining by Year-End and Shift to AI Business

Key Points of the Article

• Bitcoin mining revenue decreased by 90% year-on-year
• No Bitcoin holdings as of the end of September

Transition to AI Cloud Business Underway

Cryptocurrency mining and data center company IREN (formerly Iris Energy) announced its earnings for the July to September 2026 period on the 5th. The company stated that it aims to complete its transition from Bitcoin (BTC) mining to AI infrastructure business by the end of the year.

During this period, IREN mined 402 BTC, a significant decrease from 2,039 BTC in the same period last year. The average operating hash rate (computational power) dropped from 45.3 EH/s (exahashes per second) in the same period last year to 8.8 EH/s. IREN has been selling the Bitcoin it mined daily and had no Bitcoin on its balance sheet as of the end of September.

Additionally, Bitcoin mining revenue for the three months ending September 30 was $28 million (approximately 4.4 billion yen), down 58% from $67 million in the previous quarter and down 88% from $233 million in the same period last year.

In its SEC filings, the company stated that while transitioning data centers for AI cloud purposes, some data centers would continue Bitcoin mining. However, it aims to nearly complete the transition by December 31, 2026, and expects only minimal Bitcoin mining in the fiscal year 2027 (July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027).

On the other hand, IREN is actively expanding its AI (artificial intelligence) cloud business, with revenue in this sector reaching approximately $200 million (about 31.7 billion yen), a 182% increase compared to the previous quarter. This was primarily due to the handover of the "Horizon 1" facility under a cloud contract with Microsoft.

The operational ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue based on currently operating GPUs at full capacity for one year) reached $1 billion (approximately 159 billion yen). The company aims to have over $4 billion (approximately 630 billion yen) in contracted ARR operational by the end of January, although it may be delayed until the end of February depending on customer requests and supplier delivery times.

According to IREN, its total assets reached $20.6 billion (approximately 3 trillion yen) as of the end of September, of which $6 billion is related to data center assets. Last month, it was reported that IREN had signed a multi-year cloud contract with AI company Anthropic.

Background of Reduced Losses

IREN's net loss for the July to September period was $263 million (approximately 41.5 billion yen), a reduction from a loss of $684 million in the previous quarter.

The factors contributing to the net loss include $148 million in depreciation and $106 million in stock-based compensation (non-cash), with a temporary impairment of $450 million in the previous quarter due to the discontinuation of mining equipment being the main reason for the reduction in losses.

Daniel Roberts, co-founder and co-CEO of IREN, commented:
"We own all the land, power, and data centers, which expands our funding options for growth and allows us to control our growth pace.

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