Nasdaq analysis backs IREN as next big AI data center winner

This is an investing column, but the underlying facts it leans on are telling: AI‑native data center operators are now signing power‑hungry, multi‑billion‑dollar contracts with hyperscalers to host frontier workloads. IREN is cast as a pure play on this trend, with Microsoft’s reported 200 MW, multi‑year deal used as proof that energy‑rich, AI‑optimized campuses are the new strategic battleground.

For the race to AGI, the takeaway is that infrastructure specialization is deepening. We’re moving from generic cloud to facilities explicitly designed around high‑density GPUs, exotic cooling and cheap power, financed by long‑term take‑or‑pay AI cloud contracts. That changes who has leverage: not just chip designers and model labs, but also the firms that can line up land, grid connections and financing fast enough to stand up multi‑gigawatt campuses.

Competitive implications are twofold. First, cloud majors like Microsoft are locking in bespoke capacity to insulate themselves from future GPU and power shortages. Second, specialist operators like IREN become critical intermediaries in the AGI supply chain, similar to how foundries like TSMC underpin the chip ecosystem. If their growth projections even roughly materialize, the sheer amount of dedicated AI compute coming online will keep pushing practical AGI closer.