KEY POINTS
- Australian firm Firmus has signed a deal with Nvidia worth up to US$30 billion in revenue over six years, using 170,000 GPUs.
- Firmus is still private, so you cannot buy it yet, though an IPO is being explored.
- Several ASX-listed data centre stocks are exposed to the same AI infrastructure boom.
- We think the theme is real, but most of these names already price in strong growth.
Australian AI company Firmus Technologies has signed a major partnership with chip giant Nvidia to build a 360MW AI factory in Batam, Indonesia, alongside Singapore’s DayOne. The deal uses 170,000 Nvidia GPUs and targets up to US$30 billion in revenue over six years. That is a huge number for a company most Australians have never heard of.
The catch: Firmus is still private, so you cannot buy it on the ASX yet, although it has appointed banks to explore a float. We see this deal as a clear signpost of where AI infrastructure money is heading, and the ASX already has listed ways to ride the same wave.
Why the Firmus-Nvidia Deal Matters
The deal is simple. Firmus buys Nvidia equipment and sells Nvidia-powered cloud computing to smaller “AI native” firms that cannot afford to build their own. Nvidia earns product sales plus a share of the cloud revenue, and it is already an investor in Firmus. The 170,000 GPUs, due between early 2027 and 2028, show how fast demand for AI computing is growing.
The bigger message that matters most: Australia is now a real player in global AI infrastructure, not just a former Bitcoin miner that pivoted into data centres. When Nvidia backs a local name at this scale, it validates the whole theme.
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Can’t Buy Firmus Yet? The IPO Question
Firmus is already well backed. In April it raised a US$505 million round led by Coatue, lifting its valuation to US$5.5 billion, part of US$1.35 billion in equity raised over six months. It has now appointed banks to work on a potential float, making it one of the most watched Australian tech IPOs in years. We think the buzz is fair, but caution is warranted. Private valuations can look very different once public markets weigh in, and there is no confirmed timeline yet. Wait for an official announcement before getting carried away.
4 ASX-Listed Ways to Ride the Same Wave
NextDC (ASX:NXT) is Australia’s largest independent data centre operator and the most direct large-cap play on surging AI and cloud demand. The risk: it is a capital-heavy build-out and the stock is not cheap.
DigiCo Infrastructure REIT (ASX:DGT) is a pure-play data centre REIT expanding its Sydney SYD1 campus, and it recently sold its Chicago site for US$750 million to cut debt. The risk: a recent leadership change and execution risk on big projects.
Megaport (ASX:MP1) connects more than 1,100 data centres worldwide and raised about A$827 million to build a global AI inference cloud. The risk: management now owns the job of filling that new capacity.
DXN (ASX:DXN) is a tiny modular data centre builder that recently won a binding AI data centre contract. The risk: it is highly speculative and far smaller than the others.
The Investor’s Takeaway
The Firmus-Nvidia deal confirms what many suspected: AI infrastructure is one of the biggest structural growth stories around, and Australia is part of it. For growth investors comfortable with risk, the four names above offer real exposure today while Firmus stays private.
The key risk is that much of this optimism is already in the share prices, so any slowdown in AI spending or a jump in interest rates could hit them hard. We believe the smarter play favours names with real contracts and clear catalysts. Watch for a confirmed Firmus IPO as the next catalyst.
