IREN Ltd's stock experienced a sharp decline of 5.97% during the after-hours session on Wednesday. The move followed a period of significant strength for the AI infrastructure company during regular trading.

The after-hours drop was attributed to heightened market concerns over the company's financial leverage following the recent completion of a substantial $3.65 billion investment-grade GPU financing facility. While this financing supports major partnerships with Microsoft, Dell, and NVIDIA, the scale of the debt has raised questions about the company's balance sheet. Furthermore, the company's most recent quarterly earnings per share came in at a loss, highlighting that profitability remains a future goal.

Analysts noted that the sell-off was also driven by profit-taking pressure, as the stock had rallied sharply in prior sessions on a series of positive catalysts. These included a major transmission connection agreement for an 800-megawatt data center campus in South Australia, strategic hardware procurement deals, and partnerships with leading technology firms. The accumulated short-term gains made the stock susceptible to a pullback as investors locked in profits.