Australian artificial intelligence startup Firmus Technologies Pty. has secured a $10 billion loan facility, marking one of the largest private credit deals in the country. The capital will be used to advance its data center construction plans, signaling a further expansion of the global AI infrastructure investment wave into the Australian market.
The funding was provided by a fund led by Blackstone Group LP, with participation from technology investment firm Coatue Capital LLC. The financing will support the next phase of Firmus's data center expansion, which will utilize chips from NVIDIA. The company announced plans to build data centers in Australia with a total capacity of 1.6 gigawatts by 2028.
Firmus is expected to list on the Sydney stock exchange later this year and has become one of the most active data center builders in Australia. In November of last year, the company raised AUD 500 million for site development, infrastructure deployment, and energy trading, at which time it was valued at approximately AUD 6 billion.
Australia is emerging as a major beneficiary of the global data center construction boom. According to research from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country has become the world's third-largest destination for AI investment, trailing only the United States and China, with an expected addition of data centers worth around AUD 150 billion (USD 105 billion).
Blackstone Group LP, the world's largest alternative asset manager overseeing USD 1.3 trillion in assets, committed to the financing through its Blackstone Tactical Opportunities fund and funds managed by Blackstone Credit & Insurance. The scale of this $10 billion facility significantly exceeds earlier reports, which suggested Blackstone was planning a USD 3.5 billion loan, indicating a substantial increase in investor confidence in the project.
Firmus is actively expanding its footprint across Australia, covering major cities from Perth to Sydney and Melbourne. Its previous AUD 500 million financing round was primarily used for site development, infrastructure deployment, and securing energy agreements. As an AI infrastructure company backed by NVIDIA, Firmus's data center builds will leverage NVIDIA's chip technology, providing a technical advantage in the AI computing race. The planned 1.6-gigawatt data center capacity by 2028 is set to significantly boost Australia's AI computing capabilities.
According to projections from Moody's, investment in AI-related infrastructure, such as data centers, is expected to exceed USD 3 trillion over the next five years, with a significant portion likely financed through debt. Combined capital expenditures from tech giants Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft could reach USD 650 billion by 2026, largely driven by an expensive AI arms race.
However, this staggering scale of investment has raised concerns on Wall Street, with investors questioning whether these massive cash outlays will ultimately generate sustainable returns. Despite these concerns, capital continues to flow into AI infrastructure, with Firmus's $10 billion funding round serving as the latest example of this trend.
Leveraging its abundant resources and strategic location, Australia is increasingly positioning itself as a significant player in the global AI infrastructure competition.
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