The Numbers
Firmus priced its ASX float at $11 per share, targeting a $7.1 billion raise at a US$30.6 billion (A$44bn) equity valuation. The term sheet, seen by Reuters, shows indicative orders already exceed the offer size.
That valuation is 44 times what the company was worth 12 months ago ($1bn). Institutional bidding runs October 6-9. Trading is scheduled for October 23.
What Firmus Actually Does
Firmus builds AI data centres, or as it calls them, "AI factories." The company started as a bitcoin miner in 2019, pivoted to infrastructure, and now operates two facilities with plans for seven across Australia and Southeast Asia within two years.
Revenue is not publicly disclosed. One estimate puts ARR above US$600 million, but treat that cautiously until the prospectus confirms it. The company recently signed a deal with Meta for computing capacity at its Southeast Asian sites, but did not disclose financial terms or distinguish between committed capacity and optional expansion.
The GTM Angle
Firmus raised a US$10 billion debt package (Blackstone, Coatue) and A$500 million in equity in September to fund its build-out. That scale of capital suggests enterprise GTM: large deal sizes, long sales cycles, strategic customer relationships.
Public directories list a VP of Sales (Gavin Dudley), but the company has not disclosed sales headcount or recent hires. Employee count sits somewhere between 51-200, depending on the source.
What to Watch
The float will test whether public investors share the appetite of private backers for AI infrastructure at this valuation. Two facilities are operating. Five more are planned. The gap between committed deals and optional capacity will matter when assessing whether the numbers hold.
For sales professionals watching ANZ tech: this is the second-largest Australian IPO after Telstra's 1997 privatisation. If you are tracking enterprise infrastructure opportunities in the region, Firmus just became impossible to ignore.