Many people see the global race to build AI infrastructure as an American story, with big data centres in Virginia, Texas, and the Midwest. But the Asia-Pacific region is also seeing major growth, as more countries want their own AI computing resources.
In this environment, an Australian startup firm, Firmus, has become one of the best-funded infrastructure companies in the region.
Earlier this week, the company raised $505 million in a funding round led by Coatue Management, with Nvidia also participating, Bloomberg reports. It is now valued at $5.5 billion. This is Firmus’s third equity raise in six months, bringing its total funding to $1.35 billion.
Sources say this will be the last round before the company plans to go public on the Australian Securities Exchange, likely in June or July. Firmus hopes to raise another $2 billion, with Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Morgans Financial helping with the IPO.
Building AI factories
Firmus was founded in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield, and Jonathan Levee. The company builds what it calls AI Factories, which are high-density data centres designed for AI workloads rather than adapted from regular data centres.
Such centres use clusters of GPUs connected via high-speed networks, with storage and cooling systems designed for long-term operation. They are set up to work with Nvidia hardware and software.
The company claims its Tasmanian sites have achieved a Power Usage Effectiveness rating of 1.03, near the theoretical limit and well below the global average of 1.5, though some industry observers have questioned the scale of its efficiency claims.
The main focus of Firmus’s Australian expansion is Project Southgate, which is being developed with Nvidia and CDC Data Centres. The project could reach up to 1.6 gigawatts of capacity in the next three years. It will begin with locations in Melbourne and Tasmania. Firmus says a global hyperscaler client has already signed on, but has not revealed the name.
In the broader Asia-Pacific market, it competes with established regional data centre operators including ST Telemedia, Equinix, and NTT, as well as specialist AI infrastructure builders backed by US hyperscalers.
The new funding will help Firmus roll out its AI Factory platform, which is based on Nvidia’s Vera Rubin DSX reference design. Vera Rubin is the name for Nvidia’s next-generation chips and systems, expected to launch in the second half of this year. Firmus is building its infrastructure ahead of this hardware’s widespread availability, showing confidence in the supply chain.
Firmus’s funding structure
The equity funding is just one part of Firmus’s financial story. In February, the company secured a $10 billion debt package led by Coatue and Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager.
Coatue is now involved in both equity and debt, which is unusual and highlights its commitment to AI infrastructure. Coatue manages over $70 billion in assets and has also invested in companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.
If everything goes as planned, the IPO will be one of the largest technology listings on the ASX in recent years and will provide Firmus with the public funding it needs to grow further.
The $2 billion goal is ambitious, especially since the Australian market rarely sees tech offerings this large. Few Australian companies have gone public with $1.35 billion in equity, a $10 billion debt package, Nvidia as an investor, and a major hyperscaler as the main customer in their main project.
