Firmus Technologies withdrew its application to list on the ASX one day after closing its bookbuild, abandoning what had been anticipated as Australia's largest share market listing in decades. The planned float was targeting a valuation of approximately $44 billion, with shares priced at $11 each, and had been reported to be seeking to raise at least $5 billion from the IPO, ABC News reported.
The withdrawal came amid investor concern centred on Firmus's high valuation for a company still in its startup phase with only two small operational sites, as well as broader questions about an AI bubble. Reports during the week before the withdrawal indicated the per-share price could have been reduced, with one figure cited as $8.25 and another as low as $8.
Firmus's bankers were said by one investment manager briefed on the matter to have significantly overestimated investor demand in seeking to raise $7 billion before listing. The planned ASX listing was expected to have been the biggest since Telstra in 1997.
Firmus withdrew its ASX listing application, citing recent market volatility and prevailing conditions, with its board determining the offer terms would not appropriately reflect its business strength and long-term growth outlook. Firmus was backed by Nvidia, Blackstone, Jane Street and Coatue.
Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield and Jonathan Levee established Firmus in 2019, initially in crypto mining and high-performance computing before moving into AI infrastructure. In August, Firmus secured a US$2 billion equity raise, with Blackstone, Coatue, Nvidia and Jane Street among the backers, putting its post-money valuation above US$10.5 billion.
Maas Group Holdings shares were placed in a trading halt following the Firmus IPO withdrawal. After the trading halt was lifted, Maas shares fell a further 5.6%, closing at $4.68, with an intraday low of $4.42. Maas shares, which closed at $6.39, dropped as low as $4.47 the next day, triggering an ASX price query, and settled that day at $4.96.
Maas built up a 3.2% fully diluted stake in Firmus for a total outlay of $410 million, with a $300 million top-up occurring in August. On its Firmus stake, Maas recorded a $40.2 million fair value gain in FY26, forming part of a broader $41.7 million investment uplift.
CDC terminated its arrangement with Firmus, a deal described as worth $73 billion and known as Project Southgate, which had aimed at sovereign, renewable-powered AI infrastructure with Nvidia named as first customer. Project Southgate was announced in October last year. Jack Dan, CDC's chief strategy officer, told a federal parliamentary committee that when the partnership with Firmus began, Firmus was focused more on Australia and sovereign AI capability, but its business model evolved in a direction that diverged from CDC's mission, so CDC chose to follow its own course.
Maas remains exposed to Firmus on two fronts: as a shareholder holding a 3.2% fully diluted stake purchased for $410 million, and as a supplier through its wholly owned JLE Group subsidiary with approximately $1.1 billion in work orders. Under a master services agreement covering Firmus's Australian AI factory pipeline, JLE holds the exclusive position as supplier of power train units.
Across FY26 and FY27, Firmus placed approximately $1.1 billion in work orders with JLE for modular Power Cubes and related electrical scope at current AI factory projects. Against those work orders, Maas collected $373 million in payments under the master service agreement's terms and anticipates completion of the work by the end of calendar year 2027.
Reporting: ABC News, The Guardian, Yahoo Finance, Business News Australia
Written by Pick & Scroll News from the reporting and documents linked above.
