IREN's predatory management and markedly weaker execution than Nebius make it hard to take seriously while Mike Alfred remains on its board. Barring an oversold bounce, IREN looks cooked big time with more time. x.com  x.com 

IREN keeps falling behind Nebius: it misses estimates, its story keeps getting pushed back, and despite its capacity it fails to sign contracts or bring in meaningful revenue. Its management, software and engineering are all weaker, and it has not beaten Nebius on any front in recent years. @SpoonKidnapper counters that IREN is still converting its Canadian sites from bitcoin mining to AI, so ARR doesn't yet reflect where it will be in a quarter or two. x.com 

Open-source models likely wrecked the heavy-capex thesis behind IREN. Debt CDS and falling token prices make the still-bullish view definitely less so. Unlike Roku, a previous long-term hold with a unique, massive user base, low capex and positive free cash flow, IREN lacks a clear path forward; without one, it is better not to hold it. If Warsh remains hawkish, a full exit from IREN is very likely. x.com  x.com 

IREN is not appealing because management takes huge compensation packages while the company loses money and revenue declines sequentially. That is poison for a company whose cost of capital is literally its own share price. It would look more appealing if it used the tighter credit CoreWeave and Nebius recently tapped instead of funding capex through equity dilution. x.com 

IREN's low-margin bare-metal business is being financed on uncontracted future capacity, so rising opex and added financing will pressure it. A Goldman Sachs report now flags exactly that: extra financing supports a material amount of uncontracted capacity, the Secured Power metric IREN touts. Most AI data center leasing models will be pressured in some way, and IREN is the most obvious example. x.com 

IREN's $363 million in GPU-backed financing makes it a bet to survive neocloud consolidation. Elon Musk warned that drying debt markets could kill or consolidate many of the 200-plus neoclouds, leaving only a few survivors; IREN secured funding in that very market. x.com 

IREN looks like a joke company for spending on sponsorships and giving away executive shares without announcing deals. It sponsors sports teams and the All-In podcast while giving its CEO and brother tens of millions of free shares tied to no performance metrics. x.com 

Nebius looks preferable to IREN because its dilution and financing costs are more manageable and it alone has positive retained earnings in this comparison. Nebius's share count rose 18% year over year against IREN's 51%, the highest in the table and, in this view, not put to good use. Nebius's positive earnings include a subsidiary valuation gain despite an operating loss in H1. x.com 

IREN's deal economics, not the Anthropic name alone, will determine whether locked-in demand earns good returns. The reported deal is good news, but its terms remain unknown, and a buyer that large can negotiate hard on price. IREN should do well: it still has more capacity to sell and is expected to charge a premium for it. x.com 

IREN's worsening fundamentals warrant patience despite its potential. Trailing free cash flow is -$2.45 billion, net income -$703 million and EPS -$1.64 even as revenue has grown; it needs a catalyst change and a positive trend in fundamentals. x.com