Iris Energy Shares Fall 14% After Short Seller Questions Site's Suitability for AI and HPC

Shares of Iris Energy dropped by 14% following a report by a short seller claiming that the company's Childress site was not suitable for hosting AI or HPC. However, broker Bernstein notes that the company had not intended to retrofit the site for AI and that the existing infrastructure works well for bitcoin mining. Bernstein estimates that 65% of the company's value comes from bitcoin mining and the remaining 35% from AI/HPC, with potential AI upside coming from the West Texas site. The broker initiated coverage of Iris Energy with an outperform rating and a $26 price target.