Shaky $4 bln neocloud IPO reportedly pricks AI bubble
NVDA•Firmus Technologies reportedly cut its IPO price by 25% as it scrambled to keep the deal alive. At A$8.25 per share, the offer would raise A$5.9 billion, down from A$7.9 billion, and value the company at A$33 billion rather than nearly A$44 billion.
1. IPO price cut
Nvidia- and Blackstone-backed Firmus Technologies cut its IPO price by 25% and was scrambling to keep the deal on track. The company had reduced the price per share to as low as A$8 from A$11 and was trying to hold it at A$8.25. At that price, the offer would raise A$5.9 billion, assuming the number of shares sold remains unchanged, and give Firmus an equity value of A$33 billion.
2. Valuation uncertainty
Firmus has built 42 megawatts of capacity against a pipeline of about 1 gigawatt. It recently pivoted from a mostly domestic partnership with CDC Data Centres toward expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia, targeting hyperscalers including OpenAI and Meta. The proposed EV+1/EBIT+2 metric uses expected net debt in 12 months and forecast earnings before interest and taxes in two years, but the column argues that project costs, demand and construction delays can make those estimates uncertain.
