Data centre builder Firmus is targeting up to $5bn through a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange, a figure that would rank among the exchange's most substantial offerings to date, Bloomberg has reported. The company's valuation trajectory has been steep: just four months earlier, in April, the firm had been working with a $2bn raise target against a $5.5bn valuation. By August, that valuation had climbed to $10.5bn.
Investor engagement kicked off mid-month, with roadshows across Australia planned to follow. The company has not yet disclosed pricing, a listing date or the size of the free float that will be offered.
The five-month surge in valuation reflects tangible progress on the ground. OpenAI recently signed a multi-year compute contract spanning two Malaysian facilities, becoming Firmus's anchor customer and pushing the company's contracted capacity past 900MW. The financial terms of the OpenAI deal remain undisclosed, yet the partnership has functioned as a de facto prospectus for the company's ambitions.
In June, Firmus committed to developing a 360MW facility in Batam, Indonesia, with access to as many as 170,000 Nvidia accelerators through 2028. The company projects $25bn to $30bn in committed offtake revenue over the site's first six years of operation, with commercial service beginning in the first quarter of 2027.
The broader regional context is significant: Southeast Asia is planning to expand data centre capacity fourfold from current levels, with Malaysia accounting for the bulk of a 6GW pipeline under development.
Project Southgate and the Australian expansion
Back in Australia, Project Southgate represents the company's domestic flagship. The programme targets 1.6 gigawatts across five locations by 2028, beginning with a Launceston, Tasmania site. The initial build carries a $4.5bn price tag, though the full programme is costed at $73.3bn. A $10bn debt facility led by Blackstone in February is funding the early stages of construction.
Of the seven AI factories in Firmus's portfolio, only two are currently operational. The remainder are either contracted, committed or publicly announced—a distinction that matters, since the gap between a signed offtake agreement and actual delivered capacity is where data centre developers frequently encounter difficulties. Firmus is now asking public markets to underwrite that transition.
Regulatory environment and efficiency positioning
Australia has introduced a regulatory hurdle that may ultimately favour Firmus's operational model. Since July, AI data centres in the country must generate more power than they consume, funding new renewable capacity rather than drawing solely from existing grid supply. Firmus's liquid-cooled architecture, which the company claims uses one-third less energy and nearly zero water, positions it better than most competitors to meet this requirement.
Firmus was established in 2019 and operates from Singapore. The company began as a Bitcoin mining operation before pivoting to data centre infrastructure. Its current backers include Nvidia and Blackstone. The roadshow ahead will ultimately determine whether the $10.5bn valuation reflects confidence in 900MW of contracted capacity or rests primarily on the two facilities currently drawing power.
Source: The Next Web
