Inside Firmus AI Data Center IPO And Its Soaring Valuation Risks
- Australian artificial intelligence infrastructure startup Firmus is seeking a $43.7 billion valuation as it prepares to list on the Australian Securities Exchange on October 23, nine.com.au reported.
- The listing follows a meteoric trajectory for the company founded in 2019 by Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield, which builds specialized data centers known as AI factories to...
- While Firmus prepares to ask prospective shareholders for billions of dollars during a global AI boom, its expansion has encountered sharp community resistance in regional areas.
Australian artificial intelligence infrastructure startup Firmus is seeking a $43.7 billion valuation as it prepares to list on the Australian Securities Exchange on October 23, nine.com.au reported. Set at $11 apiece, the initial public offering is targeted at securing roughly $7.1 billion, which establishes the transaction as Australia’s second-biggest share float ever, trailing only Telstra’s $14 billion offering in 1997.
Firmus prices shares at $11 for $7.1 billion float
The listing follows a meteoric trajectory for the company founded in 2019 by Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield, which builds specialized data centers known as AI factories to run artificial intelligence systems for major technology customers including Meta and OpenAI, nine.com.au reported. Firmus raised $2.8 billion in new capital back in August to backroll its growth, pushing its valuation past the $15 billion threshold before it advanced toward the current $43.7 billion goal. According to analysts from the banks working on the IPO, Reuters reported, the firm also carries about $43 billion worth of debts, giving Firmus a potential enterprise value of approximately $86 billion.
To support its valuation, Firmus is forecasting $5 billion in annual earnings once its development pipeline progresses, according to a draft prospectus reviewed by theguardian.com. However, an investment manager who viewed the draft documents told theguardian.com that the valuation “keeps compounding when nothing has really changed,” describing the projected $5 billion in earnings as “a little bit of a fairytale” for a capital-hungry business. The company is forecasting an after-tax loss of about $111 million for the first half of the financial year, alongside $330 million in operating revenue, compared with about $72 million across the whole of the previous financial year, according to investor material reported by the Australian Financial Review.
Tasmanian residents protest fast-tracked data center approval
While Firmus prepares to ask prospective shareholders for billions of dollars during a global AI boom, its expansion has encountered sharp community resistance in regional areas. In Launceston, Tasmania, resident Kayla Thompson told theguardian.com she did not realize the company had ambitious plans to build data centers until after construction began on a 104-megawatt facility at St Leonards. The $2.1 billion AI factory was given fast-tracked approval by the city of Launceston in September 2025 without a public hearing, sparking local backlash and leading residents to form a protest group.
In June, after community backlash threatened two other proposed data centers in the state’s north-east, Firmus organized dozens of public consultation sessions and overhauled its community engagement program, theguardian.com reported. Joe Zadravec, who lives close to another proposed Firmus site, told theguardian.com that the company “did a bit of a mea culpa and said we handled that badly,” adding that they “only did that after they were caught.” A Firmus spokesperson confirmed to theguardian.com that the company overhauled its community engagement program after receiving strong feedback from Launceston locals.
Institutional bidding opens as market watchers debate valuation
Formal bidding from institutional investors is scheduled to begin on Tuesday and close on Friday, with indicative orders already exceeding the size of the offer before formal bidding begins, according to Reuters reporting cited by nine.com.au. Should investor interest prove sufficiently strong, an additional $720 million might be brought in via an over-allotment option. The float has emerged as the most divisive initial public offering on the local market in decades, with market participants split between viewing the company as a foundational pillar of the artificial intelligence generation or a short-sale candidate, according to the Australian Financial Review. The proposed ASX debut comes as similar AI data center offerings face hurdles internationally.