Firmus Pulls $5B ASX IPO After Investor Pushback

Firmus withdrew its planned $5 billion initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), according to aitimes.com, after institutional investors objected to the terms during the bookbuilding process. The company had set its IPO price at A$11 per share and aimed to raise up to $5 billion through new share issuance.

The listing would have valued Firmus at $30 billion, which would have been the largest in Australian market history since Telstra in 1997. The company's valuation had been increased from $10.5 billion two months earlier to nearly $30 billion for the IPO.

Investors pointed out that Firmus's currently operating data center capacity is only 42MW. The company's board stated that the proposed offer terms did not adequately reflect the company's business strengths and long-term growth prospects, and cited continued market volatility.

For the 2026 fiscal year, Firmus recorded $50.8 million in revenue and an operating loss of $68.2 million.

Firmus is now considering raising $3 billion in private investment from private equity markets instead of an IPO, according to Bloomberg.

The company had backing from Nvidia and secured OpenAI as a major customer, and it signed a contract with Meta to supply AI computing infrastructure in Asia-Pacific. It planned to build 1,000MW-scale AI data centers in Batam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, in addition to existing facilities in Melbourne and Singapore. In October 2026, Firmus announced completion of the roof on Data Hall 1 in Launceston, Tasmania, and handover of its first data hall in Indonesia.