AI data centre builder Firmus raised a further US$2 billion (A$2.85 billion) at a $15 billion valuation in August 2026, with Coatue and Nvidia returning, Blackstone funds coming in and Jane Street joining, as reported.
The raise caps one of the fastest valuation climbs by any Australian-founded company. Firmus was valued at about $1.85 billion only 11 months earlier. Its rise reflects how much global capital is flowing into the physical infrastructure behind AI, and how much of Australia’s headline venture funding now depends on a handful of very large deals.
The valuation ladder
In September 2025 Firmus was worth about $1.85 billion when Nvidia backed a $330 million raise. It then raised at a $6 billion valuation a few weeks before April 2026. In April it raised US$505 million at $8 billion. The August round almost doubled that figure again.
Across those rounds Firmus has raised more than US$3 billion in about 12 months, according to reports. The money is funding Project Southgate, a national rollout of AI data centres put at $73 billion.
From bitcoin to AI
Firmus was founded in Sydney in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield and Jonathan Levee, and started out mining bitcoin. It now designs and builds data centres around the power and cooling demands of AI training. Startup Daily describes the company as Singapore-based with a Sydney headquarters.
The concentration problem
Firmus’s size also distorts the national funding picture. Cut Through Venture’s June quarter report put total Australian startup funding at about $1.7 billion. Firmus ($725 million) and payments company Airwallex ($460 million) took around 70% of it between them.
Excluding those two, the remaining 62 venture deals in the quarter shared roughly $500 million, according to the report. That is a far thinner market than the headline total suggests.
Jack’s take
When people say Australian AI is booming, a lot of the time they mean two companies. Firmus is a genuine story and the investor list speaks for itself. But the headline totals hide how thin the rest of the market was that quarter.