IREN (NASDAQ: IREN) shares gained more than 1% intraday on Tuesday after H.C. Wainwright upgraded the stock to Buy from Sell and set a price target of $80.

The firm said 2026 was shaping up to be a transformative year for IREN as artificial intelligence infrastructure spending remained a major investment theme. The analyst cited strong hyperscaler capital expenditure budgets, growing demand for large-scale power access, and positive investor sentiment toward AI infrastructure.

H.C. Wainwright highlighted IREN's $9.7 billion, five-year AI cloud agreement with Microsoft, calling it one of the largest AI contracts secured by a bitcoin miner. The deal is expected to be fully monetized by the end of 2026 and generate approximately $1.94 billion in annual recurring revenue once 200 megawatts of critical IT capacity are deployed at the Childress site.

The firm also pointed to IREN's development pipeline of more than 2 gigawatts of incremental capacity expected to be energized by 2027, providing a long runway for AI cloud growth and potential colocation opportunities. The analyst noted the stock had fallen about 35% from its November 2025 highs despite modest gains in the Nasdaq, creating what it viewed as an attractive entry point. IREN recently raised $2.3 billion through convertible offerings, adding to its $1.8 billion cash balance as of October 2025 to fund AI data center expansion.