Firmus IPO 2026: Withdrawn at a $30.6B Valuation, Two Weeks Before Trading

Firmus withdrew its IPO on October 9, 2026, walking away from a $30.6 billion valuation two weeks before its shares were due to trade on the ASX.

Firmus, the Nvidia-backed Australian builder of AI data centers it calls AI factories, withdrew its application to list on the Australian Securities Exchange on October 9, 2026, scrapping an A$7.1 billion ($4.94 billion) offer priced at A$11 a share, an implied equity valuation of about A$43.7 billion ($30.6 billion), Yahoo Finance reported. We covered the collapse as it happened in our Pulse story on Firmus pulling its IPO, after reporting the original IPO terms on October 5.

Firmus IPO: What Happened

Firmus withdrew its ASX IPO on October 9, 2026, after the institutional bookbuild failed to support the A$11 price. "Having considered recent market volatility and prevailing market conditions, the Board determined that the terms on which the Offer could proceed would not appropriately reflect the strength of the Company's business and long-term growth outlook," the company said, according to SmartCompany. Firmus said it "will now pursue capital from the private markets and consider alternative public and private market options."

The deal had four joint lead managers, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Morgans Financial, and SmartCompany reported that Morgan Stanley had suggested Firmus could be worth US$65 billion to US$90 billion. The book went the other way.

How Did the Firmus IPO Fall Apart?

The deal unravelled over about three days. On Tuesday, October 6, CDC Data Centres founder Greg Boorer said his company's Project Southgate partnership with Firmus had been abandoned because the two sides were "misaligned," and Firmus CEO Oliver Curtis said it was "mutually agreed earlier this year" not to proceed, SmartCompany reported. By Wednesday night the IPO team was considering a cut from A$11 to A$9 a share. ABC then reported the book had closed and advisers were weighing A$8.25, along with a smaller deal, per Yahoo Finance, and The Australian reported they tested appetite at A$5.50, half the original price. Firmus adopted none of those terms and withdrew on Friday.

Yahoo Finance (citing ABC), October 9, 2026; SmartCompany (citing The Australian), October 9, 2026

Data

Firmus IPO Share Prices Discussed, October 2026 (A$)

Item	Value
Offer price	A$11.00
Cut considered	A$9.00
Cut weighed (ABC)	A$8.25
Demand tested (The Australian)	A$5.50

One investor quoted by ABC put the worry plainly: "we're quite concerned that Firmus will have to keep coming back to the market for a lot more debt and more equity to fund its expansion plans." SmartCompany reported that the overall plan outlined in the IPO would cost about A$51 billion.

Firmus Valuation History: From A$1.85B to a $30.6B Offer

Firmus was founded in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield and Jonathan Levee as a Bitcoin miner and pivoted to AI data centers in 2024. A year before the IPO it was valued at A$1.85 billion, SmartCompany reported. Firmus raised $505 million at a $5.5 billion valuation in April 2026, TechCrunch reported, in a round led by Coatue. Firmus then raised $2 billion in a fully committed August 2026 equity round from Coatue, Nvidia, funds managed by Blackstone and Jane Street that valued it above $10.5 billion, per Yahoo Finance and Forbes.

The A$11 IPO price would have nearly tripled that August mark in two months. That jump, with no new public financials between the two prices, is what the market declined to underwrite.

TechCrunch (Apr 2026); Forbes and Yahoo Finance (Aug 2026 round); Yahoo Finance (Oct 2026 IPO terms)

Data

Firmus Valuation by Event, 2026 (US$B)

Item	Value
Apr 2026 round	$5.5B
Aug 2026 round	$10.5B+
Oct 2026 IPO price (withdrawn)	$30.6B

Firmus IPO Timeline

Sources: Firmus newsroom (debt facility), TechCrunch, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, SmartCompany, as of October 15, 2026.

Will Firmus Try a Nasdaq IPO?

Its shareholders are pointing that way. Tectonic Investment Management, which holds more than 5% of Firmus, told investors that a Nasdaq listing was the most likely alternative because US investors have a stronger grasp of AI and data center stocks, ShareCafe reported on October 15, 2026. "This is clearly a setback for Firmus and our investment in it," Tectonic chief investment officer Ben Haan wrote. Tectonic listed the options, expected to be settled in six to twelve months, as a trade sale, a merger with another listed neocloud, or staying private longer. Ellerston Capital, another shareholder, said it was confident of a Nasdaq listing next year.

The nearer-term money is private. Firmus and its advisers were discussing a $2 billion to $3 billion private round with existing investors, Quartz reported, citing Bloomberg. The clock matters: a listing delayed beyond November 30 would trigger arrangements giving Nvidia, Blackstone, Coatue and other investors a larger equity share and diluting earlier holders, including the founders, the AFR reported via SmartCompany.

No Nasdaq filing exists as of October 15, 2026. A US listing would put Firmus next to other AI infrastructure names testing public investors, such as DayOne Data Centers and Nscale.

What Firmus Actually Runs

Firmus says its portfolio covers seven AI factories across Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, with contracted customer capacity above 900 megawatts, anchored by OpenAI at two Malaysian sites and by Meta, which already runs Nvidia GB300 systems at Firmus's Melbourne site, per Yahoo Finance. Project Southgate targets an initial A$4.5 billion stage of up to 150 megawatts and 1.6 gigawatts of operational AI factories through 2028. Firmus reported $51 million of revenue for its 2026 financial year, Quartz reported.

Against that revenue, the $30.6 billion IPO price was about 600 times trailing sales (Value Add VC's arithmetic). Public investors were being asked to pay for contracted capacity coming online through 2028, financed partly by the $10 billion debt facility Blackstone and Coatue provided in February 2026.

What the headline misses

A withdrawn IPO is not a failed company. Firmus still has OpenAI and Meta as customers, more than 900 megawatts of contracted capacity by its own count, and the same backers that funded it at $10.5 billion in August. Those backers keep their downside protection: if the company misses the November 30 listing deadline, they get more of it.

The cost lands on everyone else. Founders and earlier holders face dilution under those arrangements, local fund managers that marked Firmus up into the float now hold a stake with no public price, and the next round will be priced against a public book that would not support A$11. Whether that round lands nearer $10.5 billion or $30.6 billion is the real Firmus valuation question now.

The Bottom Line on the Firmus IPO

Firmus withdrew its A$7.1 billion ASX IPO on October 9, 2026, after pricing it at A$11 a share for a $30.6 billion valuation and then watching advisers test prices as low as A$5.50. It is now talking to existing investors about a $2 billion to $3 billion private round, and two large shareholders point to a Nasdaq listing within the next year. Until a new filing appears, Firmus's last real price is the August 2026 private round above $10.5 billion.

Track Firmus and other AI infrastructure deals on our AI Valuations tracker and the 2026 IPO pipeline.