Firmus IPO
Nvidia-backed data center firm Firmus pulls its Australian IPO as investors balk at AI valuations.
Firmus Grid has pulled its Australian IPO. The Nvidia-backed data center operator cited market volatility, the company told CNBC.
Big numbers, all around. $5 billion was the ask, with shares priced at A$11 each, a deal that would have ranked as the second-largest share sale in Australian history and valued the company at roughly $30.6 billion, CNBC reported.
The board balked. Firmus's board said the terms on offer did not reflect the strength of its business or its long-term growth outlook. Proceeding, the board concluded, was not in the best interests of the company and its shareholders, according to the statement given to CNBC.
Private capital is the new plan. "Firmus will now pursue capital from the private markets and consider alternative public and private market options," the company said.
That path is already well tested. In August, Firmus closed a $2 billion funding round backed by Nvidia, Coatue Management, Blackstone and Jane Street, CNBC reported. The round pushed the company's total equity raised over the prior year above $3 billion and lifted its valuation past $10.5 billion. Those same investors are the ones Firmus is now counting on again.
Business keeps growing too. Firmus struck agreements with Meta last month to supply GPU computing capacity at its AI data centers across Southeast Asia, CNBC reported. Those facilities run on Nvidia's DSX platform and support Meta's AI research, model development and training work.
Still, the IPO collapsed. Global investors have grown wary of AI valuations that climbed fast on the strength of private rounds and corporate partnerships rather than public trading history, and Firmus had been set to test that wariness directly, in a deal sized to move Australia's entire exchange. Pulling back let the company avoid pricing itself into a skeptical public market.
Firmus gave no new timeline for a public listing. Whether it tries again, the company didn't say. For now, its next checks come from the same private backers who carried it this far. Nvidia's name is attached to nearly every one of them.