Firmus Drops Its ASX Listing and Turns to Private Capital to Fund Its AI Factories

Firmus, the Australian builder of AI data centers backed by Nvidia, has withdrawn its application to list on the Australian Securities Exchange and will seek funding from private investors instead, putting a company with more than 900 megawatts of contracted capacity back on the private market.

The decision was disclosed on Oct. 9 in an ASX notice from Maas Group Holdings, an investor and supplier. Maas said the Firmus board had concluded that, given "recent market volatility and prevailing market conditions," the terms on which the offering could proceed "would not appropriately reflect the strength of Firmus' business and long-term growth outlook." The board found that proceeding was not in the best interests of Firmus and its shareholders, and said Firmus "will now pursue capital from the private markets and consider alternative public and private market options."

The question now is how Firmus pays for a build-out that has grown quickly. In a Sept. 8 release, the company said contracted capacity across all customers stood at more than 900 megawatts after OpenAI agreed to contract dedicated compute from two Firmus sites in Malaysia and become an anchor customer. Firmus said its portfolio spans seven AI factories in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, two of them operating, with the other five targeting readiness within 24 months.

Three weeks later, on Sept. 29, Firmus announced agreements with Meta Platforms for GPU capacity at Firmus sites in Southeast Asia, with contracted capacity and expansion options. Meta is already a customer in Australia, using Nvidia GB300 NVL72 systems at Firmus's Melbourne facility.

Private capital has carried the company so far. On Aug. 7, Firmus said it had received full commitments for a $2 billion strategic equity round with follow-on participation from Coatue and Nvidia, new investment from Blackstone funds and participation from Jane Street, at a post-money valuation above $10.5 billion. On Feb. 9, the company announced a $10 billion debt financing facility led by Blackstone funds and supported by Coatue to fund the next phase of Project Southgate, its Australian program, which it said is expected to scale up to 1.6 gigawatts through 2028.

The Maas notice also shows how far the company's suppliers are exposed. Maas said its electrical unit, JLE Group, has received work orders from Firmus totaling about 1.1 billion Australian dollars across fiscal 2026 and 2027 for modular power systems and related electrical work, and has been paid 373 million Australian dollars to date. Maas expects the orders to be completed by the end of 2027. It also disclosed that it bought Firmus ordinary and preference shares during 2026 at an average cost of about 188 Australian dollars a share, or 3.76 dollars after a proposed 50-for-1 share split.

For Firmus, a private round avoids pricing its shares in a volatile public market, but it does not remove the need for capital. Each new AI factory requires land, grid connection, power systems and cooling before customer revenue begins, and Firmus's customer contracts are only as valuable as its ability to deliver capacity on schedule.

The markers to watch are the size and terms of any new private round, whether existing backers participate, and whether delivery dates for the OpenAI and Meta capacity are met. Maas's own updates on work-order payments will offer an outside read on construction pace.

Firmus has not said when it might return to public markets, or on which exchange.