Let’s get this straight.
asserted
this → let → ?
Australia should want big, bold technology companies, and it should want them listed here where ordinary investors can share in the upside.
asserted
investors → want → upside
But Firmus was always going to be a hard sell.
asserted
Firmus → go → ?
Just after 9am on Friday, it stopped trying.
asserted
it → stop → Friday
The data centre start-up withdrew its $43.7 billion sharemarket float, which would have been the largest on the ASX since Telstra in 1997, after big investors refused to pay its price.
asserted
investors → withdraw → price
Firmus builds what it calls AI factories: data centres packed with Nvidia chips, whose computing power it rents to tech giants such as Meta and OpenAI to run their AI.
asserted
it → build → AI
Unlike most data centre operators, which rent out space and power, it owns the chips itself.
asserted
it → rent → chips
Most of those factories do not exist yet.
asserted
Most → exist → factories
Firmus runs two data centres, in Melbourne and Singapore, with seven more contracted and four in planning.
asserted
Firmus → run → planning
Of the 912 megawatts of computing capacity it has signed customers up for, just 46 are running: about 5 per cent.
asserted
46 → sign → customers
The company asked Australians to buy a skyscraper off the plan.
asserted
company → ask → plan
For once, the market asked to see the foundations first.
asserted
market → ask → foundations
Is this the AI bubble bursting?
asserted
bubble → burst → ?
Spending on AI is still climbing, and chip giant Nvidia announced a $US150 billion share buyback late last month.
asserted
Nvidia → spend → buyback
But investors are getting pickier.
asserted
investors → get → ?
Smart-ring maker Oura has delayed its US float, and shares in CoreWeave, Firmus’ closest listed rival, have halved in a year.
asserted
shares → delay → year
The ramifications are significant for its two chief architects – cousins who were set to be instant billionaires and had no real experience in the technology sector – and will sweep across Australia’s AI sector and the economy more broadly.
asserted
who → set → sector
Had Firmus listed this month, millions of Australians would most likely have ended up owning a slice of it through their super, without ever being asked.
asserted
millions → list → super
The comeback that wasn’t
The float was supposed to complete one of the more remarkable comebacks in Australian business.
asserted
float → suppose → business
Oliver Curtis, Firmus’ 40-year-old co-chief executive and the husband of public relations entrepreneur Roxy Jacenko, is a former investment banker who served a year in jail for insider trading a decade ago.
asserted
who → serve → trading
He has since called his actions “incredibly, gravely stupid”.
asserted
He → call → actions
He co-founded Firmus in 2019 as a bitcoin mining business with his cousin Tim Rosenfield, who ran a luxury lingerie brand, and Jonathan Levee, who handles the engineering.
asserted
who → co → engineering
Neither co-chief executive came from the technology industry.
asserted
executive → come → industry
They signed up big names all the same.
asserted
They → sign → names
Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, is a shareholder and James Packer and former treasurer Joe Hockey hold stakes.
asserted
Packer → hold → stakes
“As a father, I’m incredibly proud of what Oli’s done,” Curtis’ father Nick, a mining entrepreneur and major shareholder, told The Australian last week.
asserted
Oli → ’m → Australian
Firmus earned about $US50 million ($73 million) in revenue last financial year.
asserted
Firmus → earn → revenue
It asked to be valued at about 600 times that.
asserted
It → ask → that
“Investors just weren’t prepared to pay a sky-high price up-front for capacity that’s still largely on the drawing board,” Josh Gilbert, who analyses Asia-Pacific markets for investing platform eToro, told this masthead.
asserted
who → prepare → masthead
The price had climbed quickly.
asserted
price → climb → ?
Firmus sought a $1.2 billion valuation in late 2024 and raised money at $15 billion in August.
asserted
Firmus → seek → August
Then it asked public investors for almost three times that.
asserted
it → ask → that
The road to Friday was rocky, to put it lightly.
asserted
road → put → it
This week Firmus confirmed that a $73 billion partnership with CDC, an established Australian data centre operator, was over.
asserted
partnership → confirm → CDC
The Financial Review reported that a test of Firmus’ prized cooling system had flooded part of CDC’s Melbourne data centre earlier this year.
asserted
test → report → centre
David Allen, who runs a fund at investment manager Plato that bets on shares falling, said the price assumed Firmus would “execute almost flawlessly” and grow its revenue by about 25,300 per cent in three years.
asserted
Firmus → run → years
Fund managers who met the founders before the float told the Financial Review that their interest could drift quickly when an investor wasn’t a believer.
uncertain
investor → meet → Review
The country’s biggest super funds, including Aware Super, UniSuper and Australian Retirement Trust, stayed out.
asserted
funds → include → Super
“Firmus is such an unknown quantity,” said Ben Squires, who invests the retirement savings of teachers and community workers at NGS Super.
asserted
who → say → Super
Even then, investors already holding Firmus, including Nvidia and US investment giants Blackstone and Coatue, could have sold about $17 billion of existing shares from the first day of trading.
uncertain
investors → hold → trading
…and 21 more, not listed.
The Aporia
