Firmus Tests IPO Investors With a $30.6 Bn Bet on ASEAN AI Demand
OpenAI and Meta contracts anchor Australia’s second-largest listing, but execution risks loom as five of the infrastructure provider’s seven “AI factories” remain under development.
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Australia’s AI infrastructure provider Firmus Grid (operates as Firmus Technologies) has opened books for an A$7.1 Bn ($4.9 Bn) initial public offering, asking public markets to anchor a steep valuation expansion on a footprint that remains largely unbuilt.
An over-allotment option could push the total capital raise to $5.5 Bn, positioning its debut as Australia’s second-largest IPO on record, trailing only Telstra’s 1997 privatisation. Institutional bookbuilding opened on Tuesday, with indicative orders already exceeding the deal size, according to a term sheet reviewed by Reuters.
Joint lead managers expect to close the books on Thursday, a day ahead of schedule. The stock is scheduled to begin trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on October 23. Bank of America, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Morgans Financial are leading the offering.
The offering prices Firmus at A$11 per share, implying an equity valuation of $30.6 Bn (about A$43.7 Bn). The figure nearly triples the $10.5 Bn valuation the company fetched in a private funding round just two months ago. It also marks a steep climb from the $5.5 Bn valuation set in a strategic round led by US investor Coatue in April.
ASEAN Demand Underpins Valuation
The rapid valuation growth of Firmus relies heavily on pre-sold capacity across ASEAN. The company secured a critical anchor contract in September with OpenAI to supply dedicated compute capacity in two planned facilities in Malaysia. That pushed its total contracted pipeline past 900 MW.
Meta Platforms has similarly expanded its footprint with Firmus, signing capacity and expansion options across the region to support its large-scale AI research and model training. In neighbouring Indonesia, Firmus is building a 360 MW campus in Batam with Singapore-based developer DayOne, under an eight-year partnership with Nvidia. Meta has contracted one of the three planned Batam facilities, according to people familiar with the matter.
Yet the IPO’s central wager is whether Firmus can build the capacity it has already sold. It runs only two sites today, in Melbourne and Singapore. The other five, across Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia, are still under development and targeted for delivery within 24 months.
Financial Ambitions vs Near-Term Losses
Bankers’ pitches have focussed on the company’s structural margins. Early supporter Wilson Asset Management has compared Firmus to “the BHP of the token generation,” highlighting its EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) margins, which are more than double those of peers.
Marketing materials distributed to prospective investors outlined a 2028 financial year target of $5 Bn in annual EBIT once all seven sites are operational. The recent Meta agreement is expected to lift that target by 15% to $5.75 Bn, according to Capital Brief. That values the IPO at about 13 times forecast 2028 EBIT, a discount to U.S. peer CoreWeave, which briefly traded at 17 times forecast EBIT this year, The Nightly reported.
Firmus IPO at a Glance
| Metric | Valuation/Financial Position | Source/Context |
| IPO Equity Valuation | $30.6 Bn (about A$43.7 Bn) | Implied at A$11/share |
| Estimated Debt | ~$30 Bn | Reported estimate |
| Implied Enterprise Value | ~$60 Bn | Equity value plus estimated debt |
| H1 FY27 Pro-Forma Net Loss | $77 Mn after tax | Draft prospectus, via Reuters |
| FY28 Target EBIT | $5.0 Bn | Roadshow projection |
| FY28 EBIT incl. Meta uplift | ~$5.75 Bn | Capital Brief estimate |
Source: IPO term sheet and draft prospectus, as reported by Reuters (September 24 and October 1, 2026), Bloomberg (October 1, 2026) and Capital Brief (September 29, 2026).
Note: Debt and enterprise value are estimates by analysts at banks working on the IPO, not company-disclosed figures. The $5.75 Bn figure is Capital Brief’s sourced estimate, not company-confirmed.
The near-term financials, however, underscore a steep development curve. The company’s draft prospectus contains no formal forecasts beyond the first half of the year ending June 2027, where it flags an anticipated $77 Mn pro-forma net loss, people familiar with the draft told Reuters. The document notes that the firm has been historically loss-making due to high capital expenditure and client acquisition costs.
Leverage & Overhang Concerns
The combination of rapid valuation steps and heavy capital requirements has drawn caution from several fundamental fund managers.
“Our process prevents us from effectively buying into, kind of, the hopes and dreams,” said Kirit Hara, a portfolio manager at Sydney-based Merlon Capital Partners, who also cited the debt load as costs and interest rates rise.
Joseph Koh, a portfolio manager at Sydney-based Blackwattle Investment Partners, said the fund would not bid. It prefers ASX-listed Goodman Group, which has a better record of delivering data centres on time and on budget compared to Firmus.
Debt levels add further friction to the capital structure. Analysts at the banks working on the IPO estimate Firmus’s debt load at roughly $30 Bn, pushing its total enterprise value towards $60 Bn. Morningstar strategist Lochlan Halloway pointed to the speed of the valuation increase and the debt as hallmarks of a boom phase.
The equity layer sits atop a highly leveraged infrastructure programme. Investors are also watching potential supply pressure on the stock.
Firmus plans to allocate about half of the IPO placement, including the over-allotment option, to existing strategic and financial investors, who remain unnamed.
Interestingly, its shareholders include Nvidia, Coatue, Blackstone, Jane Street, Wilson Asset Management and Argo Investments. While the concentration offers institutional validation, some prospective buyers remain wary of an eventual stock overhang soon after the debut, Bloomberg reported.
Ultimately, the IPO presents public markets with a steep execution wager. With five of its seven core sites still under development, a near-term loss forecast and its long-term profit targets confined to investor roadshows instead of the draft prospectus, Firmus is asking public equity to price more than just paper demand.
Investors must bet directly on the company’s structural capacity to convert its highly public commercial backlog into operational, cash-generative infrastructure strictly on schedule.
Australia’s AI infrastructure provider Firmus Grid (operates as Firmus Technologies) has opened books for an A$7.1 Bn ($4.9 Bn) initial public offering, asking public markets to anchor a steep valuation expansion on a footprint that remains largely unbuilt.
An over-allotment option could push the total capital raise to $5.5 Bn, positioning its debut as Australia’s second-largest IPO on record, trailing only Telstra’s 1997 privatisation. Institutional bookbuilding opened on Tuesday, with indicative orders already exceeding the deal size, according to a term sheet reviewed by Reuters.
Joint lead managers expect to close the books on Thursday, a day ahead of schedule. The stock is scheduled to begin trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on October 23. Bank of America, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Morgans Financial are leading the offering.
