Firmus, an Nvidia-backed AI infrastructure firm, has raised $2 billion in a fully subscribed equity round, pushing its valuation above $10.5 billion. Nvidia and Coatue Management returned as follow-on investors, with Blackstone-managed funds and Jane Street joining as new backers.
Project Southgate and the Asia-Pacific push
The funding will accelerate Project Southgate, Firmus's rollout of AI training and inference factories across Australia, and bankroll expansion into Asia-Pacific markets, including Indonesia. The company has now raised over $3 billion in equity in the past year, nearly doubling its $5.5 billion April valuation.
From Bitcoin miner to AI data centers
Firmus didn't start out in AI. It began as a supplier of cooling technology for Bitcoin mining, later pivoting to data centers built on Nvidia's DSX reference architecture. That shift has paid off as demand for AI compute keeps climbing.
The Nvidia connection
Nvidia's involvement goes beyond writing a check. Earlier this week, Firmus announced a satellite computing deal with SpaceX, and in June it agreed to buy Nvidia infrastructure and resell Nvidia-powered cloud services. Nvidia's own earnings are due August 26, and while Wall Street remains broadly bullish, investor Michael Burry has warned of a 1987-style crash, arguing Nvidia helps finance the customers buying its chips.
Private capital's view
Emanuel Ajay Datt, managing director of Datt Group, said the raise shows private capital sees AI infrastructure as one of the few capital-scarce opportunities in global markets. The round was fully subscribed, a sign that investors are still hungry for AI plays even as broader markets wobble.
Nvidia's earnings report on August 26 will offer the next read on the AI trade, but Firmus is already betting that the demand for compute won't cool off.
