Firmus Shelves Its ASX Float Three Days After Launch, at a Price Nearly Triple Its August Round

Firmus, the Australian AI data-centre builder backed by Nvidia, shelved its ASX float on Friday, Oct. 9, three days after its institutional bookbuild opened on Oct. 6, Reuters reported. The offer was fixed at A$11 a share, an equity valuation of US$30.6 billion, against US$10.5 billion in an August private round.

Announced and closed are different words here: the IPO was launched and never priced. Reuters said investors pulled orders on Wednesday, Oct. 7, after CDC Data Centres chief executive Greg Boorer told a podcast that a plan to develop 1.6 gigawatts of AI factories with Firmus was no longer underway.

The price against its own history

SmartCompany puts the A$11 offer at A$43.7 billion. Two months earlier, Nvidia, Coatue, Blackstone and Jane Street invested A$2.85 billion at a A$15 billion valuation, and in September 2025 Nvidia's A$330 million valued the company at A$1.85 billion. The IPO price was 2.9 times the August mark, which was 8.1 times the 2025 one.

1. Sept. 2025 (Nvidia A$330M)1.85 A$bn
2. Aug. 2026 private round15 A$bn
3. IPO at A$1143.7 A$bn

Source: SmartCompany, Oct. 8, 2026

SmartCompany reported that Firmus was likely to cut to A$9, an 18.2% discount and a A$35.8 billion market value, and that The Australian had floated a value as low as A$30 billion. Firmus chose a private round instead.

What was actually built

Firmus has 46 MW operating in Melbourne and Singapore, about 3% of its pledged capacity. It plans 865 MW across five sites over two years at a disclosed capital cost of A$51.71 billion. The largest is Batam, Indonesia, at 360 MW and A$20.66 billion. The company cites A$20.2 billion in contracted revenue from the rollout.

Reuters reported on Sept. 24 that Firmus expects a pro forma loss after tax of $77 million for the half ending Dec. 31, 2026, without stating currency, and that the draft prospectus carried no forecasts beyond that half. Nvidia is both an investor and, per that report, a customer, alongside Meta and OpenAI.

The debt is the figure the books balked at. Analysts for the lead managers put it at about $30 billion, which Reuters says implies enterprise value near $60 billion. The escrow would have let existing holders sell more than half their stock from day one. Blackwattle Investment Partners reviewed the deal and did not bid.

Item	Figure	Source
Proposed raise	A$7.1 billion	SmartCompany
Headline size	about $5 billion	Reuters
Servers	A$3.46 billion	SmartCompany
Liquidity reserve, financing costs	A$2.21 billion (31%)	SmartCompany

The two size figures do not reconcile in the reports read for this story, and the currency on the Reuters number is not settled.

The CDC split and what follows

CDC and Firmus dissolved their Southgate partnership less than a year after announcing it. Boorer said the companies were "misaligned." Firmus co-founder and co-chief executive Oliver Curtis said they "mutually agreed earlier this year" to part ways. Bloomberg reported that Firmus is exploring up to $3 billion from existing investors, per Reuters, and Firmus declined to comment on funding. A person involved said a Nasdaq listing would follow. Co-founders Curtis and Tim Rosenfield said only that they would "consider alternative international public market options." Trading had been scheduled to begin Oct. 22. Whether the private round prices above A$15 billion is the next number to watch. For comparison, Varda raised a $251 million Series D, and Nvidia was reported to be weighing a takeover of Reflection AI.