At a glance
- Firmus has signed a binding agreement to buy Benmax's fabrication, design and projects businesses for A$300 million.
- Firmus says completion will more than double its global workforce to 340, which puts the acquired headcount above 170.
- Benmax has co-designed and built the HyperCube, the factory-made module inside a Firmus AI factory, since 2020.
- Jobs and Skills Australia rates refrigeration mechanics and mechanical draftspeople in shortage in all eight states and territories.
- Three $300 million figures have landed around Firmus since early February, covering three different things.
Firmus Technologies has raised more than US$3 billion of equity in twelve months and holds a US$10 billion debt facility. Building at the pace that money buys takes refrigeration mechanics, electricians and mechanical draftspeople, and Jobs and Skills Australia rates all three in shortage in every state and territory. On 13 August, Firmus signed a binding agreement to buy Benmax, the Canberra mechanical services firm that supplies them.
Firmus, a Sydney-headquartered neocloud that builds and sells GPU computing capacity, is paying A$300 million for Benmax's fabrication, design and projects businesses. Benmax lists four divisions: design, projects, service and fabrication. The agreement covers three of them. Managing director Scott Polsen joins Firmus as chief development officer on completion.
Firmus is buying more than 170 people, and Jobs and Skills Australia rates the mechanical and drafting occupations among them in shortage in all eight states and territories. Firmus employed fewer than 170 of its own before the deal, on the arithmetic of its own statement that completion will more than double the global workforce to 340. It announced a fully subscribed US$2 billion equity round on 7 August at a valuation above US$10.5 billion. Six days later it agreed to spend A$300 million, about US$195 million, on a mechanical contractor.
Benmax has co-designed the HyperCube since 2020
The HyperCube is Firmus' modular AI factory system, a factory-made module carrying the liquid cooling, mechanical integration and electrification of an AI data hall, craned into place rather than built on site. Firmus says successive generations have been built with Benmax since the platform began in 2020.
Firmus locates HyperCube manufacture in regional New South Wales, where Benmax runs a 7,000 square metre plant on Endurance Avenue in Queanbeyan. Benmax also holds a 4,000 square metre assembly facility at Hume in the ACT, and its published capability list runs to pipe spool fabrication, modular plant room assembly, frame and skid fabrication, specialist mechanical piping and testing. The firm was founded in Canberra in 1986 and remains family-run. Polsen has been managing director since 2016.
Oliver Curtis, Firmus' co-founder and co-chief executive, said the purchase "extends our vertically integrated AI Factory Platform across design, fabrication and project delivery". Polsen had described the relationship in February as five years old: "We've worked closely with Firmus for five years to build this partnership. We're now ramping up production capacity across both facilities to deliver AI Factory components at industrial scale."
Firmus' third $300 million figure since February is a purchase price
Firmus said on 5 February that it had "committed more than $300 million to its Australian AI factory supply chain", naming Benmax for mechanical systems and MAAS Group (ASX:MGH) subsidiary JLE for electrical and electrification systems. That capacity was designed to support up to 1.5GW of AI facility delivery a year and to create up to 400 advanced manufacturing jobs, Firmus said at the time.
On 4 August, MAAS Group put a further A$300 million into Firmus equity at A$230 a share, lifting its total investment to A$410 million for 3.2 per cent of the company. The same announcement included an A$855 million master services agreement over 18 months, under which JLE becomes the exclusive supplier of power train units and modular high-voltage electrical infrastructure to Firmus' Australian pipeline.
Of the three, only the 13 August A$300 million is a price paid for a business. The February figure is a spending commitment across two suppliers, stated as "more than $300 million" and carrying no currency prefix. The 4 August figure moved in the opposite direction, from MAAS Group into Firmus shares.
| Announcement | Amount stated | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 5 February 2026 | More than $300 million committed | Firmus spending on Australian manufacturing capacity with Benmax and MAAS subsidiary JLE |
| 4 August 2026 | A$300 million invested | MAAS Group buying Firmus shares at A$230 each, lifting its total investment to A$410 million for 3.2 per cent |
| 13 August 2026 | A$300 million purchase price | Firmus acquiring Benmax's fabrication, design and projects businesses |
Source: Firmus and MAAS Group announcements, 5 February to 13 August 2026. The February release states its figure without a currency prefix.
Jobs and Skills Australia rates the mechanical trades in shortage nationwide
The 2025 Occupation Shortage List, which Jobs and Skills Australia publishes nationally and for each state and territory, rates airconditioning and refrigeration mechanics in shortage everywhere. Electricians and data and telecommunications cablers, the adjacent trades on a data centre site, carry the same rating in all eight.
Mechanical engineering draftspersons and technicians hold that all-eight rating too, so the scarcity reaches Benmax's drawing office as well as its shop floor. Degree-qualified mechanical engineers are the exception, rated in shortage in three jurisdictions: South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Across the labour market as a whole, technicians and trades filled 55.1 per cent of advertised vacancies in the March quarter, the lowest of the eight ANZSCO major groups and 11.4 points below professionals, on Jobs and Skills Australia's Occupation Shortage Report published on 3 June. Trade vacancies drew 6.8 qualified applicants each, against 8.2 for professional roles. The shortage list is economy-wide, so the ratings reflect housing, mining and the energy transition alongside the data centre roles advertised into the same occupation groups.
The Future Skills Organisation and Powering Skills Organisation put electrical work at about 44 per cent of data centre construction cost and HVAC and mechanical at about 17 per cent in their April submission to the New South Wales inquiry into data centres, citing CBRE. Firmus will hold the mechanical side of that split in-house on completion, with JLE contracted for the power train. Polsen said in February that the manufacturing build-out was "supporting hundreds of long-term jobs in Australia, with many of those roles going to tradespeople who are reskilling into advanced manufacturing".
Mandala Partners, in October 2024 work commissioned by AirTrunk, AWS, CDC Data Centres, Microsoft and NEXTDC, projected the Australian data centre workforce to grow by 8,300 to 17,900 by 2030.
Firmus deploys HyperCube in Melbourne, Tasmania and Batam
Firmus says the HyperCube has been adapted over the past twelve months for the existing Melbourne facility of CDC, the Canberra-headquartered operator that Infratil valued at A$18.5 billion in June. Firmus' Melbourne AI Factory sits inside that building as part of Project Southgate, its Australian AI factory programme. w.media reported the Melbourne contract in March as a 150MW initial phase valued at A$4.5 billion.
The HyperCube is going into a CDC building in Melbourne, a Firmus site in Tasmania and, Firmus says, Southeast Asian projects delivered with regional build partner DayOne. The first of Firmus' three Tasmanian sites, at St Leonards outside Launceston, was consented by the City of Launceston in September 2025 and is under construction, with Firmus citing a late 2026 target for first operation. JLE's earlier A$200 million engagement on the Launceston build was 35 per cent complete in May, MAAS Group said. The Southeast Asian project is a 360MW campus with DayOne on Batam, Indonesia, announced in June.
What to watch
Completion terms. Firmus has not disclosed whether the A$300 million is cash or scrip, what conditions precedent apply, or when the transaction completes. The 340-person workforce figure is stated as an on-completion number.
George Town. Firmus' 288MW application for a data centre at Long Reach in the Bell Bay industrial area, northern Tasmania, sits with George Town Council, with a decision expected this month.
The pipeline figure. Firmus said in February that the Benmax and JLE manufacturing capacity was designed to support up to 1.5GW of AI facility delivery a year. Its published Australian programme has been reported at 1.6GW by 2028, and MAAS Group described the pipeline behind the JLE agreement as a proposed 3.3GW rollout.
An occupation code. The Future Skills Organisation and Powering Skills Organisation told the New South Wales inquiry in April that Australia's occupation classification carries no code for a data centre technician, so no official series counts these workers. The committee reports on 30 September.