It seems I am the last IT professional in Canberra to have heard of Firmus Technologies. Late last night, there was a news report, about an AI data center company from Canberra, floating on the stock exchange. There was no Wikipedia entry for the company, so I created one. At least that is what I thought I did.
This morning, there was no Wikipedia entry. At that point I thought I had dreamed all this. But then I discovered the Wikipedia did not like the references in my article, so it was not approved. In the light of day, I could understand their skepticism. Was the idea to put chips in boxes in warehouses really worth billions? Later I found Marta Khomyn, from Adelaide University's excellent article on the topic.
In 2008 I suggested palletized data warehouses. The idea was to mount servers on standard stock pallets in a factory. These would then be shipped to a warehouse, where a forklift would then place them in a rack, several stories high. A technician would plug the server's data and power in.
Firmus idea is similar, in that the processing units are assembled in a factory, then placed in a warehouse, rather than a purpose built data center. One key difference is fluid cooling, which is more efficient. This requires the technician to plug in just two extra couplings: for incoming & outgoing coolant (like a large garden hose fitting). I don't know if they use racks to be able to stack the boxes.
While a clever idea, is this really worth billions of dollars? Previously I have suggested the current AI boom is a bubble, like the Dot-com bubble of the 1990s. Perhaps that bubble is about to burst.
Here is the rejected Wikipedia entry, generated by Google AI:
Firmus Grid Limited, trading as Firmus Technologies (commonly known as Firmus), is an Australian artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and cloud computing company. Headquartered in Sydney, the company designs, manufactures, and operates modular, liquid-cooled compute facilities known as "AI Factories." Unlike traditional data center providers that lease physical space and power to clients, Firmus purchases, houses, and provisions graphics processing units (GPUs) directly, renting high-performance computing power to technology companies to generate AI tokens.
The company maintains operational infrastructure in Australia and Singapore, with expanding projects across Malaysia and Indonesia. In late 2026, Firmus initiated steps toward listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) at a targeted valuation of A$43.7 billion, representing one of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) in Australian corporate history.
History
Firmus was founded in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield, and Jonathan Levee. The company initially operated as a Bitcoin mining venture, utilizing high-density hardware to exploit energy arbitrage markets. As demand shifted toward high-performance machine learning workloads, the company transitioned its core strategy exclusively to building AI infrastructure.
In February 2022, former technology executive Edward Pretty was appointed Chairman of the board. By 2025, the company launched its "HyperCube" platform—a proprietary, factory-built modular system integrating computing, cooling, and power management into a vertical stack designed to optimize power-to-compute ratios.
In late 2025, Firmus announced a major strategic partnership with CDC Data Centres valued at a projected A$73 billion to roll out high-density AI hubs across Australia. However, the three-way relationship between Firmus, CDC, and strategic supplier Nvidia collapsed in early 2026. The partnership was formally dissolved by mutual agreement, shifting Firmus's strategic focus toward independent international expansion.
Throughout 2026, Firmus secured multi-billion-dollar investments to accelerate its infrastructure deployment. In August 2026, the company completed a US$2 billion strategic equity investment round backed by Coatue, Nvidia, and Blackstone Tactical Opportunities. In October 2026, Firmus entered institutional book-build phases to finalize its A$43.7 billion float on the ASX 1.
Technology and Infrastructure
Firmus operates via a "neocloud" business model. The company specializes in building self-contained compute blocks packed with Nvidia hardware, including Blackwell GB300 and H200 HGX platforms. Rather than relying on traditional air conditioning, the hardware uses a specialized liquid-cooling system to support high-density power draws.
The company operates and develops several key sites across the Asia-Pacific region:
- Australia: Active facilities operate in Melbourne and Canberra (Hume), with large-scale regional hydro-powered projects underway in St. Leonards (Launceston), Tasmania. The company has further proposed mega data center and battery grid developments across South Australia.
- Singapore: Includes a retrofitted operational 3-megawatt GPU factory deployed at Media Hub in Loyang.
- Southeast Asia: Developing large-scale capacity pipelines in Malaysia and Indonesia, heavily targeted toward supporting hyper-scaler clients and large language model (LLM) research.
Controversy and Criticism
Firmus's rapid scale and aggressive valuation ahead of its late-2026 IPO have drawn intense scrutiny from financial analysts. Critics and portfolio managers have raised concerns regarding the structural risks of the company’s business model 2. Because Firmus directly owns highly depreciable GPU hardware rather than simply leasing real estate, it faces significant exposure to the hardware lifecycle of Nvidia chips. Additionally, analysts have highlighted concentration risk, as a massive portion of the company's projected future earnings relies on a small handful of foundational tech clients, such as Meta Platforms and OpenAI.
Media coverage has also frequently focused on the background of Co-CEO Oliver Curtis, who was convicted of insider trading in 2016 and served twelve months in prison prior to co-founding Firmus 3.
See also
References
- ^ "What Firmus is telling investors in the race to IPO finish line". The Australian Financial Review.
- ^ "Can data centre company Firmus live up to its blockbuster $43 billion listing value? Why some investors doubt it". The Conversation (2026-10-07).
- ^ "Firmus, Australia's great AI hope, just hit a speed bump". The Sydney Morning Herald (2026-10-06).
