Firmus Technologies is going public on the ASX on 23 October, and it will be the biggest listing here since Telstra in the 1990s. Priced at $11 a share, it is targeting a $43.7bn market value while raising ~$7bn, making it the second-biggest IPO in Australian history. That valuation is nearly triple the $15bn it was worth in early August.
Firmus is what the market calls a neocloud, a company that builds data centres and rents out computing power, mostly specialised Nvidia chips, to the businesses running AI. Meta and OpenAI are customers, and Nvidia, its only chip supplier, owns 7.2%. It has just two data centres operating, in Melbourne and Singapore, but has 912MW of capacity contracted, enough power for more than 1m Australian homes, and most of its future profit depends on centres in Malaysia and Indonesia that haven't been built yet.
That gap is why investors are split. Firmus expects an operating loss in the first half despite revenue jumping to ~$330m, and carries ~$30bn of debt, around six times its forecast earnings. Merlon Capital's Kirit Hara said his process stops him "buying into the hopes and dreams", and Blackwattle won't bid at all, calling the company "unproven".
The timing comes down to cash. Firmus has raised capital four times in the past year, and its lenders will only fund 80% to 90% of the chip costs if it has customer contracts locked in, with the IPO covering construction. It also needs tens of billions more for Malaysia and Indonesia, which is why its CFO told investors a Nasdaq dual listing is "certainly something that we'd be thinking about", with US investors holding far deeper pockets. First, it has to build on time while residents fight its Tasmanian sites.
