The Firmus IPO is shaping up as one of the largest listings in Australian history, and its structure is as notable as its size. According to Bloomberg, Firmus Grid, the Australian AI data center operator, plans to allocate about half of its Australian initial public offering to existing shareholders, letting Nvidia and Blackstone add to their stakes. Demand is reported to be well above the offer, which pulled the bookbuild close forward to Thursday from Friday. This post walks through what has been reported, the company's funding history, and how the deal compares with earlier neocloud listings. None of it is investment advice, and several reported figures differ between outlets, as noted below.
NVIDIAWhat the Firmus IPO reportedly looks like
Bloomberg, via Investing.com, reports a fixed price of A$11 a share, a valuation of about A$43.7 billion (roughly US$30.3 billion), and an offer of up to A$5.5 billion including the greenshoe, or over-allotment option. Proceeds are earmarked for GPUs at Firmus's first data center, in Batam, Indonesia. Reuters, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, says the company intends to allocate about half of the offer, including the over-allotment option, to selected existing strategic and financial investors. Reuters names Nvidia, Coatue, Blackstone and Jane Street as holders who took part in an August round.
Allocate about half of its up to $5.5 billion initial public offering, including the over-allotment option.
Reuters, citing two people with knowledge of the matter
Reported figures do not line up exactly. Reuters quotes the offer as "$5.5 billion" and the valuation as about $30.6 billion, in US dollar terms alongside the A$11 price, while Bloomberg puts the offer at A$5.5 billion (about US$3.8 billion). Startup Daily refers to a A$7.1 billion float. Currency labels and the treatment of the greenshoe likely explain some of the gap, but the sources do not reconcile it, so treat the offer size as unsettled until the prospectus is lodged. Reuters and others report a prospectus date of October 12 and ASX trading from October 23. Reuters adds that this would be the second-largest Australian-listed IPO on record, behind Telstra's 1997 share sale.
Why half the float goes to existing holders
Setting aside half an offer for current investors is a way to fill a large book with holders who already know the story. It also means public investors compete for a smaller slice. AI Weekly puts the existing stakes at about 7.2% for Nvidia, about 8.4% for Coatue and about 6.7% for Blackstone, and describes the structure as functioning partly as an insider top-up. That framing is the outlet's editorial view, not a finding. What can be said neutrally is that the allocation concentrates ownership among strategic holders, one of whom (Nvidia) also supplies the hardware.
That overlap is the same question raised in our coverage of neocloud vendor financing: when a chipmaker sits on the cap table of a customer, how independent is the demand signal? A larger share of the float going to strategic and financial insiders does not answer that, and arguably sharpens it.
Firmus's funding history
Firmus began as a bitcoin miner in 2019 before pivoting to AI data centers, according to Startup Daily. Its recent capital path, as reported:
- Late 2025: a $330 million equity raise at a $1.9 billion valuation, where Nvidia joined as a strategic investor (The Next Web).
- February 2026: a $10 billion long-dated debt facility led by Blackstone, with Coatue support (The Next Web; Data Center Dynamics).
- April 2026: a $505 million equity round led by Coatue.
- August 7, 2026: US$2 billion at a US$10.5 billion post-money valuation, with Blackstone and Jane Street new and Coatue and Nvidia returning (Startup Daily). We covered it in our earlier Firmus post.
Reuters notes the IPO valuation is nearly triple the August figure, reached in roughly two months.
Valuation at listing versus the last private mark
Equity valuation in US$ billions. Firmus moves from its August 2026 round to the reported IPO price; CoreWeave's 2025 IPO is shown for scale.
Firmus figures are Reuters-reported US dollar values (the IPO price is A$11 per share); CoreWeave priced at $40 per share in March 2025. Valuations are not like for like: round post-money versus IPO pricing.
Project Southgate in Tasmania
Project Southgate is Firmus's Australian build-out, centered on Launceston in northern Tasmania, where the state's grid leans on hydropower. The Next Web describes an initial construction program of $4.5 billion, a first stage of 90 megawatts and a plan for 36,000 Nvidia GB300 chips. Startup Daily reports a national plan with a A$73.3 billion cost and 1.6 gigawatts of capacity by 2028 across several Australian cities.
Tasmania is not frictionless. ABC News reported in July that Firmus is developing three Tasmanian sites: St Leonards, near Launceston, which is under construction, and Bell Bay and Wesley Vale, where development applications have been lodged. The state energy minister said the three would need more than 400 megawatts, which would make Firmus the state's largest power user, and residents raised concerns over consultation, water and energy use. Power and community approval are the variables to watch.
Batam: where the proceeds go
The IPO money is aimed at Batam, announced in June 2026. Light Reading reports a 360 MW campus built with Singapore's DayOne and Nvidia, housing roughly 170,000 accelerators across Grace Blackwell, Vera Rubin and Vera platforms, with operations planned for the first quarter of 2027. The agreement runs through 2034 on a revenue-sharing and credit-support model, and Firmus expects $25 billion to $30 billion of committed agreements over the first six years. That is a management expectation, not signed revenue.
How it compares with other neocloud listings
Nvidia-backed neoclouds have reached public markets by different routes:
- CoreWeave (March 2025): priced at $40, below its expected range, selling 37.5 million shares to raise about $1.5 billion at a valuation near $23 billion, per CNBC and Bloomberg Law. The original plan was 49 million shares at $47 to $55. It shows how pricing can be cut when markets are choppy.
- Nebius: not an IPO. Its shares resumed trading on Nasdaq in October 2024 after a restructuring, followed by a $700 million private placement at $21 a share from Accel, Nvidia and Orbis, per its SEC filing and company announcement.
- Nscale: a pre-IPO structure with Nvidia, covered in our Nscale post.
Firmus differs on three counts: a listing outside the US, a half-insider book, and an offer that is reportedly oversubscribed rather than cut. Whether demand holds through pricing and first trading is not yet known.
What to watch
- Prospectus (reported October 12): the definitive offer size, debt levels and customer commitments.
- Allocation outcome: how much Nvidia, Blackstone and others actually take up.
- Southgate approvals: power contracts and development consents in Tasmania.
- Batam timing: whether the Q1 2027 start holds, since proceeds depend on GPU delivery.
The takeaway is narrow. A fast-growing AI data center operator is testing public markets with a heavily insider-weighted book, and the strength of demand is reported, not yet proven by a completed pricing.
Sources:
- Firmus plans to allocate half of IPO shares to existing holders, Bloomberg reports | Investing.com
- Australia's Firmus to allocate half of up to $5.5 billion IPO to existing investors, sources say | Reuters via SRN News
- Firmus Reserves Half of A$5.5B IPO for Nvidia, Blackstone | AI Weekly
- Firmus sets $11 share price for $7.1 billion ASX float | Startup Daily
- AI data centre startup Firmus just raised another $2.85 billion | Startup Daily
- Nvidia-backed Firmus targets $2bn ASX IPO after locking in $505m equity and $10bn Blackstone debt | The Next Web
- Firmus secures $10bn debt financing facility for Project Southgate | Data Center Dynamics
- Firmus wants to build three AI data centres in Tasmania | ABC News
- Firmus expands to Indonesia through AI access deal with Nvidia | Light Reading
- CoreWeave prices IPO at $40 a share, below expected range | CNBC
- CoreWeave Raises $1.5 Billion in Heavily Downsized IPO | Bloomberg Law
- Nebius Group Form 6-K | SEC
Image credits
Header and in-body image: the river gorge at Launceston, Tasmania, by Diego Delso via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0. It shows the landscape of the city near Project Southgate, not a Firmus facility. Reviewed before use.