Sydney’s bitcoin brothers Will and Daniel Roberts trouser $1.1 billion share bonus
Rich lister brothers Daniel and Will Roberts have earned share options worth $1.1 billion from the board of the bitcoin and AI company they founded in 2018.
Sydney brothers Will and Daniel Roberts earned share grants worth a combined $1.14 billion for their roles running NASDAQ-listed Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence and data centre company IREN.
Legal filings revealed Wednesday’s windfall just weeks after IREN boasted of plans to build a giant data centre complex in South Australia in an announcement trumpeted by Daniel Roberts and the State’s Premier Peter Malinauskas.
The July 1 disclosures filed to the US regulators reveal each brother was awarded 9.1 million additional shares in the company vesting over a four-year period following Wednesday’s grant date.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Based on IREN’s last closing price of $US43.32 per share, each grant is worth a potential $US394.2 million. Or a combined $US788.4 million ($1.21 billion) for the former Macquarie banker brothers, turned Bitcoin and AI entrepreneurs.
In response to questions from The Nightly the company defended its corporate governance and said all share grants to executives are approved by independent board members.
“IREN’s executive compensation program is determined by the compensation committee, which is composed entirely of independent members of the Board,” a spokesperson said. “The executive compensation program was refreshed by the Board in 2025 and approved by shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting.”
IREN did not respond to a request for comment from the Roberts’ brothers. The company also said the share windfalls are subject to a six-year vesting period. It added that neither brother, as co-chief executives, will receive a further equity incentive grant until IREN’s 2031 fiscal year.
“This structure reflects the Board’s focus on sustained execution and long-term value creation as IREN advances its AI Cloud growth strategy,” the spokesperson said. “The program is designed to attract, retain, and motivate high-caliber leaders while aligning compensation with the creation of long-term shareholder value.”
The potential paydays mean each brother now beneficially owns 23.6 million shares in the company worth more than a combined $2 billion.
Disclosures in the legal filings suggest the giant share grants are subject to equal annual instalments over a four-year vesting period and two-year holding period, after each vesting.
This suggest the shares cannot be sold for cash for two years after they vest, to infer lock-up periods are between two and six years.
On Thursday, billionaire US hedge fund manager Jim Chanos used social media to criticise the IREN board’s decision to award huge share bonuses to the company’s founders with few hurdles outlined.
“So IREN just announced an $US800M stock grant (not options) to its two co-CEO’s,” Mr Chanos wrote on social media. “To put that in perspective it is 17 per cent of the estimated cumulative adjusted net income of $US4.7 billion over the term of the grant, FY 2027 to FY 2030!”
Mr Chanos did not disclose if he or his firm has a short position in IREN shares. Short sellers profit when the shares in a company fall and IREN has been a regular target of short sellers. In July 2024 IREN was the subject of a short report by Culper Research, which the company dismissed as inaccurate.
Bitcoin and AI
The Roberts brothers both worked in infrastructure investment at Macquarie Bank before founding IREN in 2018.
After banking careers they pivoted IREN from renewable energy projects in Canada to Bitcoin mining and then data centre developments linked to soaring demand for AI services.
The brothers’ success selling the company to retail and institutional investors saw its shares rocket to more than $US76 in November 2025, around the same time the last mania for Bitcoin sent the price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency to a record $US126,000.
Since then IREN’s valuation has mirrored Bitcoin’s slump, although the company is now betting on its latest pivot into building large data centres to service demand for AI training and inference.
In Australia, fellow data centre developer Firmus Technologies run by Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield is also seeking to develop a site in South Australia, as it targets an ASX-listing later this year.
While SharonAI is another homegrown data centre developer also hoping to cash in on huge demand for data centre services, with a planned ASX listing in 2026.
