[FINANCIAL] AI Data Centers ·
Asia-Pacific Infrastructure
· Pre-IPO Growth —
April 7, 2026 — COMPLETED
Firmus Technologies Raises $505M at $5.5B
Valuation — NVIDIA and Coatue Back Australia's AI Factory Builder Ahead of ASX
Mega-IPO
The largest AI infrastructure raise in Asia-Pacific history:
Sydney and Singapore-founded Firmus Technologies closes a $505 million third
equity round led by Coatue Management at a $5.5 billion valuation — its final
private raise before a planned ASX IPO targeting $2 billion in June/July 2026 —
to deploy NVIDIA's next-generation Vera Rubin GPU architecture across a
national network of "AI Factories" in Australia via Project
Southgate.
DEAL SNAPSHOT
|
ROUND AMOUNT $505 Million (3rd equity
raise in 6 months) |
COMPLETED April 7, 2026 |
|
POST-MONEY VALUATION $5.5 Billion |
TOTAL EQUITY RAISED (6 MONTHS) ~$1.35 Billion |
|
LEAD INVESTOR Coatue Management (also
co-leads $10B debt facility) |
PLANNED ASX IPO June/July 2026 —
targeting $2B raise at ~$8B+ valuation |
THE PARTIES
|
LEAD INVESTOR Coatue Management + NVIDIA
+ Other Investors Coatue
Management (New York): global technology investment firm with $70B+ AUM;
Coatue is uniquely involved in both Firmus's equity (led all three rounds)
and debt ($10B debt package co-led with Blackstone, announced February 2026).
This dual equity-and-debt involvement is highly unusual and signals
extraordinary conviction. NVIDIA: participating investor (subject to certain
closing conditions per official release); NVIDIA's hardware — specifically
its next-generation Vera Rubin DSX architecture — will power Firmus's AI
Factories; NVIDIA also signed a software collaboration with Firmus in March
2026. Additional investors: Bank of America, JPMorgan, Morgans Financial, and
Morgan Stanley are managing the IPO roadshow. IPO pre-marketing began the
same week as this funding announcement. |
COMPANY / RECIPIENT Firmus Technologies Pty.
Ltd. Sydney/Singapore-founded,
Redmond-based AI data center company. Co-founders: Oliver Curtis (Co-CEO),
Tim Rosenfield, Jonathan Levee. Founded 2019. Mission: build world-class,
energy-efficient "AI Factories" — purpose-built high-density data
centers for AI workloads, using NVIDIA's Vera Rubin DSX reference design.
Flagship initiative: Project Southgate — a national network of AI Factories
across Australia. Initial sites: Melbourne (18,400 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs planned,
under long-term hyperscaler contract) and Tasmania (36,000 NVIDIA GPUs,
renewable-powered, PUE of 1.03 — near-perfect energy efficiency). A $10
billion debt package (from Coatue and Blackstone) announced February 2026
provides the debt financing for construction. Firmus competes with Equinix,
NTT, and ST Telemedia in Asia-Pacific. |
DEAL OVERVIEW
Firmus
Technologies closed a $505 million equity round led by Coatue Management on
April 7, 2026, valuing the company at $5.5 billion post-money. This is the
company's third equity raise in six months, bringing total equity capital
raised in that period to approximately $1.35 billion. The funding is described
as Firmus's final private raise before a planned ASX (Australian Securities
Exchange) listing targeted for June or July 2026, at which point Firmus aims to
raise an additional $2 billion of public capital — which would make it one of
the largest technology IPOs in Australian stock market history.
The proceeds will
fund the rapid deployment of Firmus's AI infrastructure platform — specifically
the NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX reference design — across Australia and broader
Asia-Pacific. Project Southgate is the company's flagship buildout: a planned
1.6 gigawatts of AI compute capacity across multiple Australian sites over
three years, anchored by a signed long-term capacity agreement with a leading
global hyperscaler (identity not disclosed). The Tasmania campus achieves
extraordinary power efficiency: a PUE (power usage effectiveness) of 1.03
versus a global average of 1.5 — made possible by Tasmania's abundant renewable
hydropower and Firmus's proprietary cooling technology.
"AI demand is accelerating faster than the infrastructure
required to support it. Firmus is closing that gap with an energy-efficient AI
Factory model purpose-built for next-generation compute at a global
scale."
— Robert Yin,
General Partner & Head of AI Infrastructure, Coatue
INVESTORS & IPO BANKERS
Lead Equity
Investor: Coatue Management
Strategic
Investor: NVIDIA (subject to closing
conditions)
Debt
Facility (Feb 2026): Coatue
Management + Blackstone ($10 Billion)
IPO
Bankers: Bank of America + JPMorgan +
Morgans Financial + Morgan Stanley