IREN lands customer-prepaid GPU contracts at up to $40M per megawatt

Co-Chief Executive Officer Daniel John Roberts disclosed during the Q1 2027 earnings call that IREN has signed two new contracts since quarter-end: a five-year deal at roughly $22 million per megawatt and a shorter-term deal at $40 million per megawatt. The defining feature of the five-year contract is that 90% of the GPU capital expenditure is prepaid by the customer, meaning IREN does not have to put its own balance sheet on the line to fund the hardware.

That prepayment structure is a meaningful shift in how AI infrastructure buildouts are being financed. Rather than IREN absorbing the upfront capital risk of acquiring and deploying GPUs, customers are essentially fronting the cost in exchange for guaranteed access to capacity, locking in revenue visibility for IREN over a five-year horizon.

The gap between the two contract rates tells its own story. The short-term deal is priced at $40 million per megawatt, nearly double the long-term rate of $22 million per megawatt. That spread reflects how scarce AI compute capacity has become: customers willing to pay a significant premium to secure GPU access on a shorter, more flexible timeline.

IREN shares have risen 3.85% since Roberts made the remarks. Investors will be watching whether the company can replicate this customer-funded model across additional capacity tranches, and whether the premium on short-term contracts holds as more supply comes online.