Australian AI infrastructure startup Firmus Technologies has finalised a US$10 billion debt financing facility led by funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and Blackstone Credit & Insurance, with support from technology investor Coatue Management. The transaction, announced on 9 February 2026, ranks among the largest private debt financings in Australian history. The capital will fund Project Southgate — a national rollout of Firmus's AI Factory platform built on NVIDIA's DSX reference architecture — developed in partnership with CDC Data Centres and Nvidia. The initiative is designed to reach a capacity of up to 1.6 gigawatts over the next three years, serving AI training and inference workloads for enterprise and government customers.

Firmus is not a newcomer to large-scale capital raises. The company raised A$830 million in equity across two placements in 2025, backed by Nvidia and Australian investor Ellerston Capital, which established the foundation for Project Southgate. The new US$10 billion debt package represents a categorical shift in scale, moving Firmus from expansion mode into what backers describe as national-scale execution. Blackstone framed the deal as a long-term infrastructure conviction play rather than a short-term technology bet, drawing a parallel to its broader strategy of financing large AI compute and data-centre platforms globally — a strategy that also underpinned its 2024 acquisition of Sydney-based AirTrunk alongside Canada's CPPIB.

The deal carries meaningful near-term significance beyond the capital figure itself. Firmus is preparing for an IPO on the Australian Securities Exchange, with co-founder Oliver Curtis indicating to the Australian Financial Review that a listing is expected in 2026, targeting approximately A$2 billion in proceeds. The company's ability to execute at the scale it has promised — US$70 billion in projected total capital expenditure through 2028 — will be scrutinised by institutional investors ahead of that listing. Critics note that the debt-fuelled model echoes CoreWeave's aggressive US expansion, a comparison that cuts both ways: CoreWeave's revenue growth has been strong, but its post-IPO stock volatility has kept risk questions alive.

For Australia, the Firmus deal is a landmark moment in the country's ambition to be more than a consumer of AI — it signals a bid to become a producer of the infrastructure that powers it. Project Southgate's use of Tasmania's existing hydroelectric grid as a clean energy backbone addresses one of the key constraints facing AI data centres globally: the cost and carbon intensity of power. Blackstone's senior managing director explicitly stated a belief that 'Australia can play a central role' in the AI infrastructure buildout, a framing that carries weight for federal and state policymakers evaluating data sovereignty and digital industrial policy. The forthcoming ASX IPO will be the first major test of whether domestic public markets can support AI infrastructure at this scale, and its outcome will influence how the next cohort of Australian deep-tech companies thinks about capital pathways.

Firmus's $10B Blackstone Loan Positions Australia as a Global AI Compute Hub

While the Firmus deal is Australia-centred, its context is inseparable from the broader APAC consolidation underway. STT GDC — now majority-owned by KKR and Singtel — operates data centres in India as a core part of its 12-market Asia-Pacific and European footprint. As AI-driven demand for colocation and high-density compute accelerates across Indian enterprise and government sectors, the ownership change at STT GDC could influence investment priorities, capacity expansion timelines, and pricing dynamics in the Indian market. India's own data centre buildout — estimated at US$100 billion in capital expenditure — is drawing parallel interest from global infrastructure funds, and the Firmus and STT GDC deals may serve as a benchmark for the scale of financing that Indian AI infrastructure platforms could eventually attract.

India Features in the STT GDC Footprint as APAC's AI Infrastructure Consolidation Deepens

Singapore's digital infrastructure story took on new dimensions the week prior, when KKR and Singtel announced their US$10.9 billion full acquisition of STT GDC — the largest M&A transaction in Singapore in four years. The near-simultaneous arrival of the Firmus financing demonstrates that global capital is treating the two markets as complementary rather than competing nodes in the same regional AI infrastructure network. STT GDC operates across 12 markets including Singapore, India, Southeast Asia, the UK and Europe, with 2.3 GW of design capacity; Firmus targets a 1.6 GW buildout concentrated in Australia. For Singapore-based investors and infrastructure funds, the combined signal is clear: the window for positioning in APAC AI compute infrastructure is open and accelerating rapidly.

Dual $10B Deals in Two Weeks Put Singapore and Australia at the Centre of APAC's AI Infrastructure Race

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Blackstone and Coatue's $10B loan to Firmus is among Australia's largest-ever private debt deals — learn what's at stake for regional AI infrastructure and the coming ASX IPO.

$10B debt deal tests Australia's AI infrastructure ambition

Nvidia-backed Firmus secures one of Australia's largest-ever private debt financings as it races toward an ASX IPO and 1.6 gigawatts of AI capacity.

The scale of the Firmus financing — one of the largest private debt deals in Australian history — signals that institutional capital is no longer treating APAC as a secondary market for AI infrastructure investment. Blackstone, which has deployed more than US$70 billion into data centre assets globally since 2021, chose Australia for a flagship credit transaction, citing energy cost advantages, regulatory flexibility, and proximity to fast-growing regional AI demand. The deal arrives weeks after KKR and Singtel's US$10.9 billion acquisition of STT GDC, underscoring that both Singapore and Australia are now anchoring separate but complementary legs of the region's AI infrastructure buildout.

For APAC investors and policymakers, the paired mega-deals represent a structural shift in how the region is being capitalised. Project Southgate's planned 1.6 GW capacity — built around Nvidia chip architecture and Tasmania's hydroelectric power — positions Australia as a potential sovereign AI compute hub, with ambitions that extend beyond domestic demand into serving hyperscale and AI-native customers globally. The critical test will come when Firmus attempts its ASX IPO later in 2026: whether public markets price the company as a durable infrastructure asset or a heavily leveraged growth bet will set a benchmark for how the region's next wave of AI infrastructure companies access capital.

Blackstone's conviction bet on an Australian AI startup reshapes the regional investment thesis for data centre capital.

Australia's $10B Firmus Deal Signals APAC Is Now Primary AI Infrastructure Territory

Can Australia's Firmus Justify a $10 Billion AI Infrastructure Bet?

Australian data center builder Firmus Technologies raised $505 million in a funding round led by Coatue Management, with participation from Nvidia, valuing the company at $5.5 billion. This marks the third equity round in six months, bringing total equity raised to approximately $1.35 billion. The company is planning an ASX IPO in June or July, seeking to raise about $2 billion in additional capital.

The funding will accelerate Project Southgate, Firmus's plan to build renewable energy-powered data center capacity across Australia, starting with a Tasmania facility. The site is designed as modular AI factories running Nvidia GPU clusters at high density, eventually housing 36,000 Nvidia GB300 Grace Blackwell chips. In February, the company secured a $10 billion debt financing facility led by Blackstone, one of the largest private credit transactions in Australian history.

Firmus exemplifies Australia's emergence as a destination for AI infrastructure investment, leveraging renewable energy resources, political stability, and proximity to Asia-Pacific markets. Tasmania's hydroelectric power provides consistent baseload energy at costs below fossil fuel alternatives, with the state generating 90% of electricity from renewables. The planned IPO would be one of the largest in Australia this decade for a tech company.

Australia has long struggled to produce globally significant technology companies, with its economy dominated by mining, banking, and real estate. A successful Firmus IPO could signal a shift in the country's economic identity, demonstrating it can compete in AI infrastructure by leveraging advantages like cheap energy and stable governance. The Australian government has signaled support for domestic AI infrastructure, allocating funding for digital infrastructure development in its 2025-2026 budget.

Firmus IPO Could Signal Australia's Tech Transformation

Firmus, now Singapore-based after pivoting from bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure, has data center projects in both Australia and Singapore. The company's regional headquarters in Singapore positions it to serve growing demand across Southeast Asia's fintech and AI sectors.

Singapore Emerges as Regional AI Infrastructure Hub

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Australian startup's massive funding round led by Coatue targets Asia-Pacific AI infrastructure expansion

$505M Raise Fuels Firmus's $5.5B AI Data Center Push

Nvidia-backed data center builder reaches $5.5B valuation ahead of ASX IPO plans

The funding positions Firmus to accelerate high-density AI data center construction across Asia-Pacific, a region experiencing exploding demand for next-generation compute power with Nvidia chips powering these facilities. This aligns with the sovereign AI narrative, where governments prioritize keeping information within national borders, making Australia's stable regulatory environment increasingly attractive.

Region attracts massive capital for sovereign computing capabilities

Asia-Pacific AI Infrastructure Boom Accelerates

Firmus Raises $505M for Australia AI Factories

Firmus Technologies raised US$505 million led by Coatue Management with Nvidia co-investing, valuing the company at US$5.5 billion — its third equity raise in six months and total capital of US$1.35 billion in that period. The data center builder focuses on AI infrastructure across Asia-Pacific markets, positioning itself at the center of the region's artificial intelligence buildout. Today's rounds highlight a clear shift toward infrastructure-first investing—from AI chips and GPU cloud platforms to spacecraft mobility and carbon-negative fuels, as demand for compute, automation, and real-world AI applications accelerates.

The funding comes as Asia Pacific venture capital reaches $73.6 billion across 4,308 transactions in the past year, with investors putting $27.4 billion to work in Q1 alone — up about 20% from the prior quarter and nearly double year-ago levels. AI, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and industrial enablement are the primary drivers of venture capital investment heading into 2026, giving founders building in these verticals a structural tailwind. Investment to startups in India, Singapore and South Korea rose sequentially in Q1, while the quarterly numbers show increasing momentum in the regional startup ecosystem.

The region will spend over US$437 billion on acquiring new technology between 2025 and 2030, with Forrester estimating total spending on technology will grow by 9.3%, driven by investments in software, services, communications equipment, and tech outsourcing. India is forecast to lead major Asia Pacific markets with technology spending growth of 13.4%, followed by China at 10.7%, Australia at 8.6% and Singapore at 6%. Firmus's massive funding round signals investor confidence in the infrastructure backbone needed to support this expansion.

Australia's technology spending is expected to reach nearly AUD $110 billion in 2026, with software prices rising at almost five times the pace of general inflation as vendors add AI features to contract renewals. Firmus's Australian operations are positioned to capture significant market share as local enterprises accelerate their AI infrastructure investments. The company's $5.5 billion valuation makes it one of Australia's most valuable tech unicorns, reflecting the critical role of data center infrastructure in the nation's digital transformation.

Australian Data Center Unicorn Reaches $5.5B Valuation

India leads Asia Pacific with 13.4% technology spending growth, propelled by rapid cloud adoption and data localization rules driving major onshore infrastructure investment. India received $3.8 billion in Q1 investment, the highest in four quarters, with a significant portion going to AI infrastructure including a $600 million financing for AI systems developer Neysa. While Firmus hasn't disclosed specific India operations, the country's massive AI infrastructure requirements present significant expansion opportunities for the newly-funded company.

India AI Infrastructure Demand Drives Regional Investment

Singapore's market is expected to be supported by AI transformation spending and hyperscaler expansion, though a shortage of skilled workers remains the main brake on technology adoption. Singapore-based startups are expected to raise over $18.4B in new funding in 2026, driven by rising investor confidence, strong government support, and more global VCs entering the market. Firmus's Singapore presence positions it to serve as a regional hub for Southeast Asian AI infrastructure deployment.

Singapore Hub Strategy Attracts Record Infrastructure Investment

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Australia-Singapore data center firm attracts Nvidia backing in largest APAC tech funding of 2026.

Australia, China, India, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia all feature in this week's top funding rounds, reflecting the breadth of Asia-Pacific and GCC startup ecosystems driving AI infrastructure investment. The funding positions companies to meet the growing demand for AI compute in the Asia-Pacific region, where specialized AI infrastructure startups are rapidly gaining traction.

China's AI infrastructure spending will exceed US$70 billion in 2026, fueled by major investments from Alibaba and ByteDance as well as government industrial digitalization mandates, though weak domestic demand will slow traditional enterprise IT spending. India, as Asia Pacific's fastest-growing market, is being propelled by rapid cloud adoption and data localization rules driving major onshore infrastructure investment.

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