Key Points
- Canaccord predicts Iris Energy to become a top-tier Bitcoin miner due to its high-performance computing capabilities.
- Iris Energy is expected to expand beyond Bitcoin mining, leveraging its extensive power capacity for data centers and AI applications.
Brokerage firm Canaccord has expressed confidence in Iris Energy’s potential to become a leading publicly listed Bitcoin miner.
This prediction is based on extensive research by Canaccord’s team, who believe that Iris Energy’s high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities will significantly boost its mining operations.
The company is set to launch a pilot project in Childress, Texas, in the second half of 2024.
Power Capacity and Share Price
According to Canaccord, Iris Energy possesses a level of power capacity that few other mining businesses can match.
The company is planning to build 510 megawatts (MW) of data centers in 2024, has secured 2,160 MW of power capacity, and has a development pipeline exceeding 1 gigawatt (GW).
In light of this, Canaccord has increased its share-price target for Iris Energy from $12 to $15, while maintaining its buy rating.
Expansion Beyond Mining
Canaccord also anticipates that the Sydney-based company will expand its operations beyond Bitcoin mining.
The brokerage firm believes that Iris Energy is well-positioned to extend the use of its data centers, given its robust power, cooling, and network capabilities.
Mining Stocks on the Rise
Mining stocks have been experiencing significant gains recently.
This surge began after Core Scientific’s (CORZ) artificial intelligence (AI) announced a partnership with cloud computing firm CoreWeave in June.
JPMorgan (JPM) suggested that the market views this deal as evidence that AI and HPC could provide alternative uses for Bitcoin mining sites.
Iris Energy has also benefited from this trend, with its shares trading 1.6% higher at $11.06 on Nasdaq in early Wednesday trading.
However, the company’s shares are still recovering from a 14% drop earlier this month, following a short seller’s negative comments about the suitability of the Childress site for AI or high-performance computing.
As an infrastructure company, Iris has various ways to monetize the infrastructure it is building, such as Bitcoin mining, AI cloud, and AI colocation, according to Canaccord’s report.
