At a glance
- Firmus has pulled its A$7.9 billion ASX float, the Financial Review reported on 9 October, a day after bidding from large investors closed.
- NVIDIA and other existing backers are in talks to fund the company through a private round instead, the Financial Review and Bloomberg reported.
- Four private rounds since September 2025 raised most of the A$4.7 billion of equity Firmus has taken in, from investors including Coatue, NVIDIA, Blackstone and Jane Street.
- August's investors negotiated to receive more shares if the company does not list by 30 November.
- Customers including Meta and OpenAI have signed for 912MW of Firmus capacity, and 46MW is operating in Melbourne and Singapore.
Australian AI infrastructure company Firmus has pulled its ASX float and is looking to NVIDIA and other existing backers to fund the AI factories it is building across Australia and Asia, the Australian Financial Review reported at 8.48am on 9 October 2026. Hours earlier, Bloomberg reported that the company was set to postpone the listing and was in talks with existing investors and others about a private round.
The float sought US$5.5 billion, about A$7.9 billion, and at the A$11 offer price would have been the largest ASX listing since Telstra in 1997. Trading was due to start on 23 October. When bidding from large investors closed on 8 October, the banks were working on a lower price of around A$8.25 a share.
A private round would be Firmus's fifth since September 2025, and NVIDIA, its chip supplier, customer and shareholder, is first among the backers it is turning to.
Firmus is talking to NVIDIA and existing backers about a private round
Bidding opened on 6 October, when the banks said they had secured substantial interest from existing backers. By 8 October they had moved from discussing a float at a lower market value to considering withdrawing it, the Financial Review reported. Co-chief executives Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield had spent two months briefing investors in Asia and Australia.
Fund managers cited a limited financial history, few published forecasts and a valuation that had risen eight-fold in 2026, according to the Financial Review. Some were also wary that existing shareholders could sell large volumes of stock soon after listing, Bloomberg reported as the books closed. Shares in Dubbo-based construction group Maas Group, a Firmus shareholder whose electrical contractor JLE holds more than A$1.2 billion of work on Firmus's Australian sites, fell as much as 30% on 8 October, their largest fall on record, according to the same report. Maas said it knew of no undisclosed information behind the move.
NVIDIA supplies the chips in Firmus's AI factories, holds shares in the company and is a customer, committed to take 14MW in Australia and 360MW in Indonesia according to the Financial Review. It signed on in October 2025 as anchor customer for Project Southgate, the national rollout that data centre operator CDC Data Centres has since narrowed to a single Melbourne hall. NVIDIA would also share revenue and provide credit support under a US$10 billion chip financing under negotiation for the Batam campus in Indonesia, Bloomberg reported in September.
Four private rounds raised most of Firmus's A$4.7 billion
Equity raised by Firmus totals A$4.7 billion, according to the Financial Review, most of it in four rounds over 11 months. The largest closed on 7 August, when NVIDIA and US investor Coatue returned and Blackstone and trading firm Jane Street joined in a US$2 billion round that put the Firmus valuation at about A$15.5 billion. Fund managers Regal Partners and Wilson Asset Management are also shareholders, and a US$10 billion debt facility agreed in February, led by Blackstone with support from Coatue, sits alongside the equity.
| Date | Raised | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | A$330 million | A$1.9 billion |
| November 2025 | A$500 million | A$6 billion |
| April 2026 | US$505 million, led by Coatue | US$5.5 billion |
| August 2026 | US$2 billion | Above US$10.5 billion, about A$15.5 billion |
Source: SmartCompany, citing the Financial Review, September 2025; DataCenterDynamics, November 2025; Bloomberg, April 2026; Firmus, August 2026.
A$3.46 billion of the float was set aside for servers
Of the A$7.1 billion base offer, before any extra shares sold on strong demand, A$3.46 billion was earmarked for servers and A$929 million for the equipment to install them, Startup Daily reported. The largest site under construction is the 360MW Batam campus, built with data centre developer DayOne, sized for up to 170,000 NVIDIA GPUs and due to start operating in the first quarter of 2027. OpenAI is anchor customer for two planned sites in Malaysia.
In Australia, sites cover about 430MW across St Leonards, Bell Bay and Wesley Vale in northern Tasmania, with 2.7GW planned at Tailem Bend and Stirling North in South Australia. St Leonards in Launceston, approved for 90MW, is due to start operating in early 2027. Meta runs NVIDIA systems at the Melbourne AI factory and has signed for capacity in Southeast Asia.
Firmus is one of the neocloud providers in Australia, companies that build GPU computing capacity and rent it to AI developers. Customers have signed for 912MW of its capacity and 46MW is operating, at its AI factories in Melbourne and Singapore, according to the Financial Review.
Where does the money come from now?
Demand for the float at A$11 a share fell short. Customers including NVIDIA, Meta and OpenAI had signed for 912MW of Firmus capacity before bidding opened, and four private rounds in 11 months took its valuation from A$1.9 billion to about A$15.5 billion.
We expect Firmus to announce a private round that includes NVIDIA before the end of 2026, because the float was to pay for servers at Batam, due to start operating in the first quarter of 2027, and NVIDIA is both the supplier of those chips and a buyer of the capacity.
What to watch
The private round. Its size, price and investors.
The 30 November date. The Financial Review reported in September that August's investors negotiated a better conversion of their holdings into shares if the listing is not completed by 30 November.
Hydro Tasmania. The state-owned generator expects to decide by the end of 2026 on Firmus's request for a 444MW supply agreement for its three Tasmanian sites.
A listing before Christmas. One of the six Australian predictions for the rest of 2026 was that Firmus lists before Christmas worth more than NEXTDC. That now requires a listing by 25 December.