Nvidia Invests $500 Million in Australian Cloud Startup Firmus

TLDR

• Nvidia is investing about $500 million in Australian cloud company Firmus Technologies.
• The deal makes Nvidia the largest investor in Firmus’s $2 billion funding round.
• Firmus is now valued at roughly $15.5 billion, nearly double its prior value.
• The funds will help buy Nvidia chips for a new data center in Launceston, Tasmania.
• Firmus plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange within the next 12 months.

Nvidia has agreed to invest about $500 million in Firmus Technologies, an Australian cloud infrastructure company. The news was first reported by the Australian Financial Review on Thursday.

The investment amounts to roughly A$720 million. It is part of a larger $2 billion equity raising round for Firmus.

This makes Nvidia the biggest investor in the funding round. The deal also comes ahead of Firmus’s planned listing on the Australian Securities Exchange later this year.

Firmus Valuation Nearly Doubles

The investment values Firmus at about $15.5 billion. That is close to double what the company was worth before this deal.

Nvidia made its investment by purchasing preference shares. These shares are expected to convert into regular shares once Firmus goes public through its planned IPO.

Firmus has called a shareholder meeting for July 31. At that meeting, the company will ask for approval on the funding round.

Shareholders will also vote on a proposed 50-for-1 stock split. This would lower the price of each share and make the stock easier for everyday investors to buy once it lists.

Firmus is targeting a stock market debut within the next 12 months. The company plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange, known as the ASX.

What the Money Will Fund

Firmus provides high-performance computing and cloud services. It also offers AI-as-a-service tools for businesses, research groups, and government agencies.

The company plans to use much of the new funding to buy Nvidia’s AI chips. These chips will power a new data center project in Launceston, Tasmania.

The funding will also support Firmus’s wider expansion plans across Australia. The company has been growing its data center footprint in the region.

This investment builds on a partnership between Nvidia and Firmus announced last month. Under that deal, Firmus agreed to purchase Nvidia’s AI infrastructure equipment.

Firmus will also provide Nvidia-powered cloud computing services. These services are meant for AI startups and larger enterprise customers.

As part of that earlier agreement, Firmus plans to install 170,000 Nvidia GPUs at a new AI data center. That facility is being built in Batam, Indonesia.

Deliveries of those chips are expected to happen between early 2027 and early 2028. This is one of the larger GPU deployments tied to Firmus so far.

By taking an equity stake in Firmus, Nvidia stands to gain in two ways. It can sell more chips to Firmus, and it could also profit if Firmus’s value rises after its IPO.

According to TipRanks, Nvidia stock currently holds a Strong Buy consensus rating. That rating is based on 36 Buy ratings and one Hold rating over the past three months.

The average price target for Nvidia shares sits at $309.33. That target implies upside of about 51.54% from current levels.

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