The board of Sydney-headquartered IREN approved a four-year stock compensation package for co-CEOs Dan and Will Roberts currently worth over $570 million each.
The board of Sydney-headquartered, New York-listed IREN has approved an equity package for co-founders Will and Daniel Roberts valued at US$788 million ($1.14 billion) based on its stock price today.
Each brother will receive just over nine million shares in the company, vesting over a period of four years, which the company says is necessary for the company’s long-term growth.
“IREN’s executive compensation program is determined by the Compensation Committee, which is composed entirely of independent members of the Board,” the company said in a statement. “The program is designed to attract, retain, and motivate high-caliber leaders while aligning compensation with the creation of long-term shareholder value.”
Founded in 2018 as Iris Energy, IREN builds high-powered data centres that run on green energy. Though its facilities are all located in the US and Canada, it last month announced plans to build a $10 billion, 800 MW AI data centre campus in South Australia that it hopes will be online in 2028. Australia’s total operational data centre capacity by the end of 2025 was estimated to be 1.5 GW.
Under the new compensation incentive, each co-founder’s award will vest in tranches of around 2.3 million shares each year until 2030. They’re required to hold each batch for two years before selling, and neither will be granted incentives above these shares until the 2031 financial year. The units were awarded via an incentive scheme that was approved by shareholders at IREN’s AGM last November, under which the company’s board is empowered to compensate leaders via restricted stock units.
Both Daniel and Will Roberts were fresh entrants to Forbes Australia’s 50 Richest List earlier this year, landing at number 43 with an estimated combined wealth of $1.7 billion. Should the company’s growth continue, they will find themselves far higher up the list by the time the last tranche is paid out.
It is the latest big win for the brothers, who took home US$72 million ($104 million) each in the 2024 financial year – making them the highest paid chief executives in Australia that year.
IREN’s stock is currently trading at US$43.32, valuing the incentive packages at US$394 million ($570 million) each. Where it goes between now and 2030 will depend on how the AI boom plays out. Big Tech companies are currently spending hundreds of billions each year to build compute capacity, which is driving huge demand for data centre providers like IREN, but businesses and economists are still waiting to see AI drive productivity to justify these enormous capital expenditures.
IREN’s stock is below its May peak near US$63, but remains an astonishing rise from its 2023 low of under $2. Its market cap of US$15.4 billion makes it more valuable than tenured Australian companies like Suncorp, Qantas and Origin Energy.
“The equity awards held by IREN’s Co-Founders and Co-CEOs are long-term in nature and include both performance-based and service-based components,” the company added. “This structure reflects the Board’s focus on sustained execution and long-term value creation as IREN advances its AI Cloud growth strategy.”
Founded by former Macquarie investment bankers, IREN started its life as a Bitcoin miner but expanded to AI-focused data centres in 2024 when it bought 800 high-powered Nvidia GPUs. IREN has leaned heavily into the AI since: It signed a US$9.7 billion deal to supply compute to Microsoft last November and just last month bought US$1.6 billion of AI infrastructure from Dell.
Bitcoin mining still makes up the majority of IREN’s revenue, but it is hoping to change that as it decommissions mining gear to make space for AI infrastructure. Its crypto activities generated US$111.2 million in revenue during the quarter ending March 31, down from US$167 million the prior quarter. AI Cloud revenue meanwhile jumped 94 per cent from the previous quarter to US$33.6 million.
Though IREN is an Australian company, it is listed on the NASDAQ. Daniel Roberts previously told me the brothers were interested in listing on the ASX but the process proved onerous enough that the company opted for New York’s tech-heavy bourse.
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