Nvidia Moves to Back Firmus After Cancellation of $5 Billion Offering
Key Facts
Nvidia is moving to back cloud computing company Firmus after investors shunned its public offering, according to a report by The Information, following the cancellation of an Australian listing in October that aimed to raise about $5 billion. The move comes as Firmus seeks funding from existing shareholders after its attempt to access public markets faltered. Reuters cited Bloomberg as reporting that the company is considering raising up to $3 billion from those investors, a funding effort that remains under consideration. Firmus attributed the withdrawal of the offering to "market volatility and prevailing conditions," according to Investing.com coverage. The company said it would turn to private-market funding.
The proposed offer price was A$11 per share, implying a valuation of A$43.7 billion, according to Investing.com, citing Bloomberg. That was equivalent to about US$30.4 billion, according to coverage published during bookbuilding in October. Investors' objections extended beyond the valuation, with Reuters reporting that the offering's terms would have allowed existing shareholders to sell more than half their shares from the first day of trading. A Reuters Breakingviews analysis linked the rejection of the valuation to the company's short operating track record and its change in strategy. The analysis also cited Firmus's loss of a key partner among the factors surrounding the data centre company's listing attempt.
The listing attempt was preceded by announcements of private funding rounds involving Nvidia, which is already an investor in Firmus. In April 2026, Firmus said it expected to secure an additional $505 million equity investment led by Coatue, with Nvidia's participation subject to closing requirements. The expected valuation following that round was $5.5 billion, also subject to closing conditions. The company then announced on 7 August 2026 that it had received full commitments for a $2 billion strategic equity investment round, with renewed participation from Coatue and Nvidia. Firmus said in its August announcement that its post-money valuation exceeded $10.5 billion.
The existing relationship between Nvidia and Firmus extends to an infrastructure and cloud services revenue-sharing partnership, alongside the equity investment. According to Firmus's June 2026 announcement, the partnership centres on a dedicated AI campus in Batam, Indonesia, with a planned capacity of 360 megawatts. The agreement covers up to 170,000 Nvidia AI accelerators to equip the project. Firmus described the partnership arrangements as based on a "revenue-sharing and credit-support model." Under this model, Nvidia receives revenue from sales of its products as well as a share of revenue from the supported cloud services, according to the company's statement.
On the customer front, Firmus announced on 8 September 2026 a multiyear partnership with OpenAI to reserve dedicated computing capacity. The partnership covers 2 Firmus sites in Malaysia as part of the company's expansion in AI infrastructure. Firmus said the addition of this partnership brought its total contracted customer capacity to more than 900 megawatts. Its agreements with Meta also include contracted computing capacity and options for further expansion in Southeast Asia, according to a separate company announcement. Firmus said Meta is an existing customer in Australia and already uses Nvidia systems at its AI factory in Melbourne.
In the market, shares of Maas Group, an investor in Firmus, closed down 6.7% at A$4.63 in the Friday session following the offering's cancellation, according to Investing.com. Firmus had earmarked the equity round announced in August to accelerate delivery of its Southgate project in Australia. The funding was also intended to prepare for expansion across the Asia-Pacific region, according to the company's statement on the round. In its announcement dated 8 September 2026, Firmus said it had 5 sites under development. The company aims to bring those sites into service within the 24 months following that announcement, under its stated timetable for expanding computing capacity.