This was the moment Firmus went from a quiet story to one of the biggest in Australian tech.
The raise
- US$505M at a US$5.5B valuation
- Around US$1.35B of equity raised in six months
- Coatue led, with Nvidia participating
The debt
On top of the equity, Firmus secured a US$10B debt facility in February, led by Blackstone alongside Coatue. Coatue being in both the equity and the debt is genuinely unusual.
Why the data centres matter
Firmus says its Tasmanian data centres hit a Power Usage Effectiveness of 1.03. That is near the theoretical limit. The global average is about 1.5. In plain English, almost all the power going in goes to the computers, not cooling and overheads.
Project Southgate starts in Launceston and is planned to expand to Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Perth.
What happened next
At the time, Firmus was aiming for an ASX IPO in mid 2026. It has since raised again at a A$15B valuation, and priced its IPO at A$11 a share, looking to raise about A$7B. See the follow-up story on the IPO.
My read
Cheap, clean power plus cool weather is a real advantage in AI infrastructure, and Tasmania has both. Firmus worked that out early.