Firmus, an Australian company that builds and operates AI data centres it calls AI factories, announced on 7 August 2026 that it had received full commitments for a US$2bn strategic equity round, about A$2.85bn. The company said the deal put its post-money valuation above US$10.5bn, which Startup Daily put at about A$15bn.
Existing investors Coatue and Nvidia made follow-on investments. Funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and other Blackstone vehicles invested for the first time, and trading firm Jane Street also took part. Firmus did not name a lead investor.
The company said the round brought the new equity it had raised over the past year to more than US$3bn. Unite.AI had reported a US$5.5bn post-money valuation for the company in April.
“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.”Oliver Curtis, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Firmus
What Firmus does
Firmus Grid, which trades as Firmus Technologies, describes itself as an AI factory platform company. It designs its data centres around Nvidia's DSX AI Factory reference architecture and uses its own energy and cooling technology, including a proprietary HyperCube platform that it manufactures in Australia, and grid-aware software. It sells AI cloud services across Asia-Pacific.
Startup Daily reported that Firmus was founded in Sydney in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield and Jonathan Levee and started out as a bitcoin miner. The outlet described it as a Singapore-based business with a Sydney headquarters. Curtis is co-chief executive.
Firmus had earlier announced a US$30bn (A$43bn) deal with Nvidia to build a 360-megawatt AI factory in Batam, Indonesia, about 26km from Singapore, according to Startup Daily.
What the money is for
Firmus said the money would accelerate the next phase of Project Southgate, its rollout of AI factories across Australia, and pay for groundwork to expand into other Asia-Pacific markets. Curtis said the company could now scale in Australia while speeding up its wider regional plans, including the early stages of the Indonesia project.
Robert Yin, a general partner at Coatue, said Firmus combined proprietary technology, manufacturing and a repeatable deployment model to serve AI-native and enterprise customers. John Watson, a senior managing director at Blackstone, said AI infrastructure was among the firm's highest-conviction themes, and Jane Street's head of physical engineering, Daniel Pontecorvo, said access to reliable, high-performance compute was becoming more important as AI models grew.
The funding so far
Unite.AI reported that Firmus raised A$330m (about US$215m) in September 2025 in a round led by Ellerston Capital with Nvidia taking part, at a valuation of A$1.85bn, and that in April 2026 it agreed a US$505m equity investment led by Coatue at a US$5.5bn post-money valuation. The same report said Blackstone and Coatue had provided a US$10bn debt facility in February 2026.
Startup Daily said other backers include Regal Funds Management, Archibald Capital, Tectonic Investment Management and Ellerston Capital, along with the Pratt family and Alex Waislitz. SmartCompany reported that Firmus had earlier in the year talked up a possible listing on the ASX at an A$12bn valuation.
Company website: firmus.co