BTC miner IREN opens in the green, riding AI momentum to MSCI inclusion

IREN has announced that it will be added to the MSCI USA Index, a major benchmark that tracks the performance of large and mid-cap US stocks, by the end of February. 

The inclusion is expected to boost IREN’s visibility among institutional investors and index-tracking funds, which may support the company’s long-term price and capital-raising plans. 

Many ETFs and funds track the MSCI, and a new addition is unlikely to go unnoticed, as a new addition typically triggers automatic buying by entities that track the benchmark. 

This may trigger a short-term surge in the stock. It also enhances the stock’s visibility among institutional investors, which may support the company’s long-term price and capital-raising plans.

Why an MSCI inclusion is a big deal for IREN 

Daniel Roberts, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of IREN, says that the privilege of being added to the MSCI USA Index is a reflection of the scale and liquidity the company has built in the business. 

“We believe this milestone will broaden institutional access to IREN as we continue to execute on our AI Cloud strategy,” he said. 

The announcement comes as IREN continues its transformation from a company focused purely on BTC mining to a dual-purpose player offering mining services and AI cloud services. 

Notably, the firm is now more invested in AI-centric assets rather than BTC mining operations. In fact, reports claim its current spending on equipment and data centers far outpaces what it earmarked for Bitcoin mining, and this has reportedly gone on since its IPO. 

How the IREN stock responded to the announcement 

Since the announcement, IREN’s stock has been in the green, showing a positive bounce that saw it gain roughly 7%. However, the stock is still struggling between institutional optimism and volatility. 

Concerns about its earnings stem from IREN’s weaker-than-expected fiscal quarterly results, which saw revenue falling to $184.7 million and losses widening. The performance has Wall Street divided, with some analysts focused on near-term earnings pressure while others point to longer-term upside.

Many will continue to monitor the stock in the days leading up to February 27, when it is supposed to be included in the MSCI, which is expected to attract institutions and ETFs tracking the index. 

IREN’s Microsoft deal

IREN secured a five-year, $9.7 billion agreement with Microsoft in a deal that accounted for only 200 megawatts, while it wrapped up 2025 with about 3 gigawatts in its pipeline.

Since it revealed the contract agreement, investors have been expecting similar deals and expressed initial disappointment when the company didn’t announce a new deal.

Fortunately, CEO Daniel Roberts has informed investors that the company is negotiating multiple contracts, including a multibillion-dollar deal, which has put people at ease as it signals that the long-term AI thesis remains intact.

Iren has also secured a 1.6 gigawatt data center campus in Oklahoma

IREN has been positioning itself as a solution to one of the major bottlenecks affecting tech giants today — energy. The company boasts a capacity to support multiple big deals thanks to its 1.4 gigawatt Sweetwater 1 facility, scheduled to be energized in April.

It has also secured a new 1.6 gigawatt data center campus in Oklahoma, and power scheduling for the data center is set to ramp up in 2028, bringing Iren’s total secured, grid-connected power to 4.5 gigawatts.

As AI infrastructure keeps scaling and demand for energy rises, IREN is expected to land more deals similar to its Microsoft arrangement. The company already turned 200 megawatts into $1.94 billion in annual recurring revenue, and if it can achieve that same rate with its 4.5 gigawatts (4,500 megawatts), it can raise its annual recurring revenue to billions. 

This is one of the reasons why Roberts called IREN’s projected $3.4 billion in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2026 “an early stage of monetization relative to the size of our secured power portfolio.”