Firmus has secured full commitments for a $2 billion strategic equity financing round to accelerate the expansion of its AI infrastructure platform across Australia and prepare for further growth throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The round includes follow-on investments from Coatue and NVIDIA, along with new capital from funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and other Blackstone vehicles. Jane Street also participated.
The financing brings Firmus’ total new equity raised over the past year to more than $3 billion and gives the company a post-money valuation of more than $10.5 billion.
Firmus plans to use the capital to accelerate the rollout of Project Southgate, its AI Factory infrastructure program in Australia, while making targeted investments to support expansion into other Asia-Pacific markets.
The company recently announced development plans in Indonesia targeting AI-native customers.
Firmus builds AI infrastructure based on NVIDIA’s DSX AI Factory Reference Architecture. The company is focused on bringing computing capacity online more quickly, improving tokens generated per watt of electricity and increasing infrastructure resiliency at scale.
Firmus has also established Australian manufacturing capabilities for its proprietary HyperCube platform.
The company combines its hardware with grid-aware software and proprietary energy and cooling technologies as part of a vertically integrated approach spanning AI models, compute infrastructure and electricity infrastructure.
Firmus describes its operating philosophy as converting “energy in” to “tokens out” as efficiently as possible.
The company is positioning Project Southgate as a repeatable AI Factory deployment model designed to serve both AI-native businesses and enterprise customers as demand for accelerated computing infrastructure increases.
The new funding gives Firmus the ability to expand several elements of the platform simultaneously, including domestic manufacturing, AI Factory deployment and international development.
Firmus also sees its infrastructure as capable of supporting electricity grids and increased renewable energy adoption as data center and AI computing demand grows.
The company is headquartered in Sydney and provides AI cloud services across the Asia-Pacific region and other markets.
Blackstone said AI infrastructure remains one of its highest-conviction investment themes. Blackstone manages more than $1.3 trillion across strategies including real estate, private equity, credit, infrastructure, life sciences and growth equity.
Coatue, which manages more than $90 billion, cited Firmus’ proprietary intellectual property, manufacturing approach and repeatable infrastructure deployment model as differentiators in the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure market.
Jane Street said reliable access to high-performance computing is becoming increasingly important as AI models grow larger and more capable.
KEY QUOTES:
“This investment allows us to move on multiple fronts at once. We’re scaling across Australia while fast-tracking our capacity to expand into the wider Asia-Pacific region, including the early steps behind our recently announced Indonesia development that will serve AI-native customers.”
“We’re excited to see continued backing from Coatue, NVIDIA, Blackstone and Jane Street as we build one of the world’s leading AI infrastructure platforms from Australia.”
Oliver Curtis, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Firmus
“We believe AI infrastructure will be a foundational driver of global growth and it is among our highest conviction investment themes. We are pleased to continue to invest in Firmus and support platforms at the forefront of AI innovation.”
John Watson, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone
“We continue to believe Firmus represents a differentiated approach to AI infrastructure. Its combination of proprietary IP, manufacturing innovation and a repeatable deployment model creates a compelling platform to serve the growing needs of both AI-native companies and enterprise customers as demand for AI infrastructure continues to accelerate.”
Robert Yin, General Partner at Coatue
“As AI models become larger and more capable, access to reliable, high-performance compute becomes increasingly important. Firmus is helping build the infrastructure needed to support that next generation of AI, and we’re pleased to back the team’s continued growth.”
Daniel Pontecorvo, Head of Physical Engineering at Jane Street
