- Firmus Grid could allocate about half of its IPO shares to existing strategic and financial investors as the Australian AI data center operator prepares for one of the country's largest stock-market listings.
Firmus Grid is considering allocating about half of the shares in its initial public offering to existing shareholders, potentially giving investors including NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Blackstone Inc. (NYSE: BX) an opportunity to increase their stakes, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
The reported allocation is not final. The sources said discussions are ongoing and the structure could change before the offering is completed. Firmus also declined to comment on the reported allocation.
The development comes as investor interest in the Firmus IPO appears strong. People familiar with the process told Bloomberg that indications of interest have exceeded the number of shares available in the offering.
Firmus has priced the IPO at A$11 per share, giving the company an equity valuation of about A$43.7 billion, or roughly US$30.3 billion. The offering could raise as much as US$5.5 billion when the overallotment option is included.
Firmus IPO Draws Strong Institutional Interest
The potential allocation to existing shareholders adds another important dimension to an IPO that has already attracted substantial institutional attention. Firmus previously announced a US$2 billion strategic equity investment in August involving follow-on investments from NVIDIA and Coatue, alongside participation from funds managed by Blackstone and Jane Street. The company had also announced a US$505 million strategic equity investment led by Coatue in April.
The company is seeking to use the IPO proceeds to expand its AI infrastructure footprint, including purchases of graphics processing units for its first data center project in Batam, Indonesia. The project is being developed with DayOne Data Centers under an eight-year partnership with NVIDIA.
NVIDIA has separately identified Firmus as part of a broader Australian AI infrastructure buildout. In September, the chipmaker said Firmus was among several infrastructure companies working toward up to 2 gigawatts of additional AI factory capacity in Australia by 2027.
That expansion illustrates why the Firmus listing is being closely watched beyond Australia's IPO market. Demand for data centers and computing capacity has surged alongside investment in generative AI, while companies building the physical infrastructure needed to support AI workloads are attracting increasingly large pools of private capital.
Firmus is developing modular AI factories across Australia and Asia-Pacific and currently operates data centers in Melbourne and Singapore, according to Reuters.
Firmus Valuation Has Risen Sharply Ahead of ASX Listing
The IPO also arrives after a rapid increase in Firmus' private-market valuation. Reuters reported on Oct. 2 that the A$11 share price implied an equity valuation of about US$30.6 billion, almost three times the company's roughly US$10.5 billion valuation following an August funding round. The sharp increase has prompted some investors to question whether Firmus can execute its ambitious expansion plans at the valuation attached to the IPO.
The company expects its existing facilities and five planned Asia-Pacific data centers to generate about US$5 billion in annual earnings within five years, according to Reuters. Some investors have questioned the company's operating track record and the scale of the future projects required to support those projections.
The IPO is nevertheless expected to rank among Australia's largest. Bloomberg data cited in the latest reporting puts the deal in the same broad range as Medibank's 2014 IPO, which raised just under US$5 billion.
The institutional bookbuilding process is now expected to close Thursday, Oct. 8, one day earlier than previously planned, according to people familiar with the process. Firmus is expected to begin trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on Oct. 23.
The reported plan to reserve roughly half of the offering for existing investors does not mean those investors have been confirmed for specific allocations. The sources did not identify which shareholders would receive shares, and the final distribution remains subject to the completion of the bookbuilding process.
For investors assessing the Firmus IPO, the allocation structure will therefore be an important detail alongside the A$11 offer price, the company's rapid valuation increase and its plans to scale AI data center capacity across the Asia-Pacific region.