Brief
Firmus withdraws $43.7 billion ASX float after investors balk at price
The data‑centre firm halted its planned listing on the Australian Securities Exchange after institutional buyers declined its $43.7 billion valuation.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Australian AI‑data‑centre startup Firmus announced on Friday that it was withdrawing its planned ASX float, which would have valued the company at $43.7 billion – the largest listing on the exchange since Telstra in 1997. The decision came after major investors refused to meet the price set for the offering, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
What happened
Firmus, co‑founded in 2019 by cousins Tim Rosenfield and Oliver Curtis, had been preparing a share‑market debut that would have raised billions of dollars. The company operates two data centres – one in Melbourne and another in Singapore – and has contracts for seven more sites, with four still in planning. It claims to have signed customers for 912 megawatts of computing capacity, but only about 5 percent (46 MW) is currently operational.
On the morning of 9 October 2026, after a failed price negotiation with institutional investors, Firmus halted the float. The proposed price had already been cut by bankers from $11 to $8.25 per share, a reduction that could erase roughly $1 billion of co‑CEO Oliver Curtis’s paper wealth, according to the article.
What the reports add
The outlet notes that Firmus’s business model differs from traditional data‑centre operators: it owns the Nvidia chips that power its AI‑factory facilities and rents the computing power to tech giants such as Meta and OpenAI. However, most of the planned factories have not yet been built, and only a small fraction of the contracted capacity is active.
Comparisons are drawn to other recent tech listings: smart‑ring maker Oura delayed its US float, and CoreWeave – Firmus’s closest listed rival – saw its share price halve over the past year. The article also mentions Nvidia’s recent $150 billion share‑buyback, indicating continued investor appetite for AI hardware despite heightened caution.
What was said
The piece quotes Oliver Curtis, describing his earlier insider‑trading conviction as “incredibly, gravely stupid”. It also references his wife, public‑relations entrepreneur Roxy Jacenko, though no direct comment from her is provided.
How it came about
Firmus began as a bitcoin‑mining venture before pivoting to AI data‑centre services. The founders, both former investment bankers, aimed to create “AI factories” that would rent out GPU‑powered compute. Their ambition attracted significant media attention, but the lack of operational capacity and the founders’ limited tech experience contributed to investor scepticism. The failed float follows a broader trend of cautious capital allocation to high‑valuation tech IPOs in Australia, as seen in recent coverage of Anthropic’s mega‑IPO plans and the Saudi IPO market slowdown.
Key facts
- Firmus withdrew its $43.7 billion ASX float on 9 October 2026. (smh.com.au)
- The company operates two data centres in Melbourne and Singapore, with seven more contracted and four in planning. (smh.com.au)
- Only 46 MW of the 912 MW contracted capacity is currently running, about 5 percent. (smh.com.au)
- Bankers cut the institutional price from $11 to $8.25 per share, potentially erasing $1 billion of Oliver Curtis’s paper wealth. (smh.com.au)
- Co‑founders Tim Rosenfield and Oliver Curtis previously worked in investment banking; Curtis served a year in jail for insider trading. (smh.com.au)
Sources
- [1] smh.com.au — originally reported as “Oliver Curtis and Firmus: How the data centre start-up’s record-breaking IPO bid collapsed amid investor caution”
