Firmus pulled Australia's biggest IPO since Telstra after investors balked at the price

Firmus Technologies, a Sydney-founded AI data-centre startup backed by Nvidia, planned to list on the Australian Securities Exchange at a $43.7 billion market capitalisation and raise about $7 billion — the biggest IPO since Telstra in 1997 and what would have been the second-biggest float in Australian history. Founders and co-CEOs Tim Rosenfield and Oliver Curtis, plus co-founder Jonathan Levee, started the company in 2019 as a bitcoin-mining business and intended to borrow more after listing to build data centres across Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

By Wednesday night the deal was unravelling: bankers were reportedly considering cutting the valuation toward $30 billion, and the per-share offer had fallen from $11 to $8.25 by Thursday. Firmus withdrew from a federal parliamentary inquiry into AI as it scrambled to save the float, and by Friday the listing was pulled. Investors told reporters the price was simply too high — one analyst noted it asked for a Woolworths-sized valuation on start-up revenue; another said it was almost triple what the company had fetched in a private raise months earlier.

Three factors stacked up: an aggressive price set at the peak of AI enthusiasm, too little detail in the prospectus, and unease about Curtis's past — he had served a year in jail in 2016-17 for insider trading before co-founding Firmus. Investors also questioned whether Australia even had the energy infrastructure for data centres, and the ASX All Technology Index had dropped almost 18 per cent that year, including 9 per cent in September, as AI-bubble fears spread.

The entire $7 billion raise collapsed; the float was pulled and the share price offer had already fallen from $11 to $8.25

The $43.7 billion target valued Firmus like an incumbent — a Woolworths-sized valuation — on start-up revenue, leaving no room for buyers who wanted proof.

The prospectus carried too little detailed information for institutional investors to underwrite the price at which the founders insisted on listing.

Timing collided with a turn in sentiment: AI-bubble fears and community concern over data centres had already knocked the ASX tech index down 18 per cent that year.

Ambiguity around co-founder Oliver Curtis's insider-trading conviction compounded the trust gap that the asking price demanded investors bridge.

Management called the collapse market volatility, but analysts read it as aggressive pricing for which demand never showed up.

An IPO priced to the top of a hype cycle is an offer sellers make to themselves. When demand doesn't meet the price, the float gives way, not the price.

Firmus withdrew the float and said it would pursue further private funding and attempt a Nasdaq listing next year. Nvidia, which holds a 7.2 per cent stake and both funds Firmus and sells it chips, remained engaged, and analysts expected the company to tap the chipmaker for a larger investment. The company's website listed two sites operational, in Australia and Singapore, with five more under development. Analysts said a second listing attempt was likely, but the Nasdaq's tougher competition might earn Firmus a lower valuation than the ASX would have given it.