At a glance
Firmus closed bidding from large investors on 8 October, with its banks working to get the float away at around A$8.25 a share, down from A$11, after US funds bid less than expected.
At that price the company would be valued at about A$32.8 billion, more than twice the value NVIDIA, Blackstone and other backers invested at in August.
Most of the A$7.1 billion Firmus planned to raise was set to buy servers and the equipment to deploy them in its AI factories.
Maas Group, whose JLE business holds more than A$1.2 billion of electrical work on Firmus's Australian sites, fell 27% at the open.
Firmus has not confirmed the new price, and it is not yet known whether trading will start on 23 October as planned.
Australian AI infrastructure company Firmus closed bidding for its ASX float on the morning of 8 October 2026. Its banks were working to get the deal away at around A$8.25 a share, the Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column reported, 25% below the A$11 offer price set a week earlier. Firmus had been on track for the second-largest float in ASX history, behind Telstra in 1997.
At A$8.25 the Firmus valuation would be about A$32.8 billion, more than twice its value in August, and the float would raise about A$5.3 billion for an AI factory build that runs from Tasmania to Indonesia and Malaysia.
Investors questioned a valuation that nearly tripled in two months
Bidding opened on 6 October. Bids expected from long-only funds in the United States, which buy shares to hold, did not come through, Street Talk reported. On 7 October the banks began talking to large investors about a lower price, the Financial Review reported, with fund managers expecting around A$9. The Australian also reported a lack of interest from local, international and retail investors, according to Capital Brief.
The A$11 offer valued Firmus at nearly three times its August value, and prospective investors cited an "unproven" track record, Reuters reported. Morningstar strategist Lochlan Halloway said the float had hallmarks of a "boom phase", and Sydney fund manager Blackwattle Investment Partners said it would not bid, citing "so many unknowns". Some investors were also wary that existing shareholders could sell large volumes of stock soon after listing, Bloomberg reported on 6 October. Most of the earnings Firmus has forecast depend on sites still under construction.
By the morning of 8 October the working price was around A$8.25, and people involved in the talks told the Financial Review the float could still be withdrawn. Around lunchtime, the prospectus and investor presentation were withdrawn from the data room provided to fund managers as the banks worked to reduce the size of the raise, the Financial Review reported.
Stage | Price a share | Value of Firmus |
|---|---|---|
August 2026 funding round | Not disclosed | About A$15.5 billion |
Offer price, 1 October 2026 | A$11.00 | About A$43.7 billion |
Working price, 8 October 2026 | A$8.25 | About A$32.8 billion |
Source: Firmus, August 2026, converted to Australian dollars; Reuters, 1 October 2026; Australian Financial Review, 8 October 2026. The A$8.25 value assumes the same number of shares as the A$11 offer.
The float was set to pay for A$3.46 billion of servers
Of the A$7.1 billion Firmus planned to raise at A$11, A$3.46 billion was for servers and A$929 million for the equipment to deploy them, Startup Daily reported. At A$8.25, with the same number of shares on offer, the float would raise about A$1.8 billion less. Firmus's largest site under construction is a 360MW campus on Batam in Indonesia, sized for up to 170,000 NVIDIA GPUs. It is building the campus with data centre developer DayOne, and it is due to start operating in the first quarter of 2027.
Firmus runs 46MW at its two operating AI factories, in Melbourne and Singapore, and customers have signed for 912MW, according to the Financial Review. Meta runs NVIDIA systems at the Melbourne site, and OpenAI is anchor customer for two planned sites in Malaysia.
Firmus's sites in Indonesia and Malaysia account for 85% of the US$5.8 billion in yearly earnings it is targeting in two years' time, the Financial Review's Chanticleer column reported on 7 October. Firmus pitched that Asia-Pacific build to US investors as an alternative to the United States, where the data centre build has become harder and a backlash against AI is expected to feature in November's midterm elections, according to the column. Firmus has also pointed investors to US neocloud CoreWeave, which operates 1.25GW, as its closest comparison.
Maas Group's JLE holds A$1.2 billion of Firmus's Australian electrical work
Dubbo-based construction group Maas Group invested A$410 million this year for a 3.2% stake in Firmus, and its electrical contractor JLE Group holds more than A$1.2 billion of work tied to Firmus's Australian AI factories. Maas shares were down 27.1% at A$4.66 at 10.30am on 8 October, Capital Brief reported.
Firmus's Australian sites cover about 430MW across St Leonards, Bell Bay and Wesley Vale in northern Tasmania and 2.7GW planned at Tailem Bend and Stirling North in South Australia. Firmus has asked Hydro Tasmania for a long-term power supply for the three Tasmanian sites. St Leonards, a 90MW site in Launceston, is due to start operating in early 2027. In the same week, CDC confirmed it will not build the 1.6GW Project Southgate rollout with Firmus beyond the Melbourne hall.
What to watch
The final price. The banks have told investors further information on the offer will follow. Retail bidding was scheduled to run from 12 to 19 October.
The prospectus. Firmus is scheduled to lodge it on 12 October. It will set the final offer size and how the money raised will be used.
The debut. Trading on the ASX is due to start on 23 October.