On April 7, according to Bloomberg, on April 6 local time, Australian AI infrastructure startup Firmus completed a $505 million (approximately RMB 3.464 billion) financing round, led by New York investment firm Coatue Management LLC, with AI chip giant NVIDIA participating in the investment. After this round of financing, Firmus’ valuation reached $5.5 billion (approximately RMB 37.7 billion).
According to The Australian Financial Review, this round of financing is Firmus’ last financing round before its IPO. The company plans to list on the Australian Securities Exalter (ASX) in the middle of this year.
Firmus was founded in Australia in 2019. In its early days, it was engaged in cryptocurrency mining and scientific research computing. In 2025, the company shifted its focus to AI infrastructure construction and has data center projects in both Australia and Singapore.
Co – founder and CEO Oliver Curtis was once imprisoned for insider trading. Later, he turned to the cryptocurrency field to start a business and led the company to transform in the wave of AI infrastructure.
The company is currently advancing a large – scale project called “Southgate”, aiming to build a cluster of AI data centers powered by renewable energy in Australia. Against the backdrop of the intensifying global competition in AI computing infrastructure, this Asia – Pacific data center builder is becoming an important foothold for NVIDIA’s “Sovereign AI” strategy.
01. Raised $1.35 billion in 6 months, Firmus accelerates AI computing deployment in the Asia – Pacific
According to Firmus’ disclosure, including this round of financing, the company has raised a total of $1.35 billion (approximately RMB 9.26 billion) in the past six months. This funds will be utilized to rapidly deploy AI hardware based on NVIDIA’s new – generation computing technology in the Asia – Pacific region.
Firmus currently has data center projects in both Australia and Singapore. The most notable one is the Southgate large – scale computing power construction project. The first phase of this project is located in Tasmania, Australia, focutilizing on utilizing renewable energy to drive AI computing. After the first two phases of deployment, it will be equipped with 36,000 NVIDIA AI accelerator chips.
Firmus is building an AI factory in Tasmania, Australia (Source: Firmus official website)
In terms of technology, Firmus has adopted the Vera Rubin DSX design scheme provided by NVIDIA. Vera Rubin is the code name for NVIDIA’s new – generation chips and computing platform, which is positioned as the core architecture for building AI factories. It is planned to start shipping in the second half of 2026, which means that Firmus will be one of the earliest large – scale deployers of this platform in the Asia – Pacific region.
According to Firmus’ previous disclosure, the Southgate project has attracted a global hyperscaler, and Blackstone Inc., the world’s largest alternative asset management company, has also participated in the project financing.
02. NVIDIA’s ecological investment scores another success, but the controversy over “circular transactions” remains
Behind this round of financing is the continuous investment of NVIDIA and leading venture capital firms in the field of AI infrastructure.
The leading investor, Coatue, manages assets worth over $70 billion (approximately RMB 480.2 billion). In recent years, it has been actively involved in the AI field. Its investment portfolio spans computing infrastructure and leading AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. NVIDIA is one of the most active industrial capital in the AI field in recent years. It has invested billions of dollars in AI indusattempt chain companies in total in cooperation with venture capital institutions, thereby cultivating the downstream ecosystem, boosting chip sales, and once topping the list of the world’s highest – valued companies.
Firmus is not the only new AI computing power player that NVIDIA has bet on. Previously, NVIDIA invested in US AI cloud providers CoreWeave and Lambda, as well as Dutch AI cloud provider Nebius, all utilizing similar models. After these companies receive funds from NVIDIA, they utilize NVIDIA’s latest – generation chips and architectures to build data centers and in turn become major customers of NVIDIA. The same is true for Firmus: it accepts NVIDIA’s investment while purchasing NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform to build an AI factory in Australia.
However, NVIDIA’s model of “investing and selling products” is also accompanied by controversy. Critics point out that the companies invested by NVIDIA are often also its major chip customers, and this “circular transaction” may inflate the real demand in the indusattempt chain. In response, NVIDIA has publicly responded and denied this many times.
From a more macro perspective, Firmus’ rise aligns with the “Sovereign AI” strategy promoted by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, which aims to encourage countries to build AI data centers locally, keep data within national borders, and meet the requirements of data sovereignty and security compliance. Jensen Huang has repeatedly listed this direction as NVIDIA’s core growth engine in the future.
Currently, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia and then to Oceania, local AI computing power construction is booming globally. NVIDIA is attempting to embed its chip ecosystem into every key market through a combination of “investment + technology output”.
03. Conclusion: Less than a year after transformation, valuation doubles and rushes for IPO
Less than a year after transforming from Bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure, Firmus has raised over $1.35 billion (approximately RMB 9.26 billion) in six months, its valuation has soared to $5.5 billion (approximately RMB 37.7 billion), and it is about to rush for an IPO. The financing pace of this company reflects the strong global capital demand for AI computing infrastructure.
Meanwhile, NVIDIA’s ecological strategy of “investment + technology output” is still being replicated at an accelerating pace. From CoreWeave, Lambda, Nebius to the current Firmus, NVIDIA is deeply binding a group of emerging AI computing power providers to its ecosystem through capital ties, not only locking in huge orders for next – generation chips but also weaving a global AI computing power network based on NVIDIA’s architecture. For the Asia – Pacific market, Firmus may become a new node in this network.
This article is from the WeChat official account “Zhidongxi” (ID: zhidxcom), written by Yang Jingli and edited by Li Shuiqing. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.
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