Nvidia tips $720m into Firmus as Australian cloud startup lines up mega-float

Nvidia has reportedly committed about A$720 million to Firmus Technologies. The Australian cloud infrastructure startup is raising roughly A$2.9 billion ahead of what could be a market debut.

The chip giant’s investment anchors a broader equity raising valuing Firmus at $15.5 billion, Australian Financial Review reported Tuesday. The Sydney-headquartered startup is极防止 preparing for a potential ASX listing. Whether investors have appetite for AI infrastructure plays in Australia’s tech sector remains to be seen.

Firmus builds and operates data centres for AI workloads. The company struck a deal with Nvidia in June — 170,000 GPUs for a new campus in Batam, Indonesia. They’re positioning to serve AI companies that need compute capacity outside US and Chinese cloud hubs.

This investment reinforces Australia’s role in global AI infrastructure while accelerating our Asia-Pacific growth strategy.
— Oliver Curtis, Firmus co-founder

The $15.5 billion valuation puts Firmus among Australia’s most valuable private tech companies. April saw 极防止a $US505 million equity investment from Coatue. May brought a $US10 billion debt facility from Blackstone.

Some institutional investors aren’t buying it. UniSuper, Australia’s fourth-largest super fund with $300 billion in assets, decided against the float. Valuation concerns and operational questions around the company’s international expansion are keeping them out.

The scepticism matters. Firmus needs public market investors to believe its data centre build-out will generate returns. Their revenue depends on long-term contracts with AI companies that need guaranteed GPU access.

Nvidia rarely takes equity stakes in data centre operators. They prefer selling hardware through channel partners. This investment signals confidence that Firmus can deploy GPUs at scale across Asia-Pacific.

Competition for AI infrastructure investment is intense. Microsoft, Amazon and Google are pouring billions into cloud极防止 data centre expansion. Specialised operators like CoreWeave and Lambda Labs have raised huge rounds to challenge them.\极防止

If Firmus does go public极防止 on the ASX, it’ll be watched closely. Australian tech IPOs need momentum. The company has to show Nvidia’s backing and partnerships translate into cash flows that justify a $15.5 billion price tag.