Firmus IPO: How to buy Firmus shares on the ASX

What's the latest on the Firmus IPO?

Firmus has locked in its IPO price at $11 a share, valuing the company at roughly $43.7B (about US$30.6B), according to a term sheet seen by Reuters.

The company is raising up to US$5.5B (around $7.9B) including the over-allotment option. That makes this the second-largest IPO in Australian history, behind only Telstra's US$10B privatisation in 1997.

The institutional bookbuild opened on 6 October and demand reportedly ran above the shares on offer, so the banks brought the close forward a day to 8 October.

The prospectus is due to lodge on 12 October, which will be the first set of audited accounts Firmus has ever published, and it should also settle most of the questions still hanging over the float. We'll update this guide once it's out.

IPO timeline

• 6-8 Oct 2026: Institutional bookbuild opens and closes.
• 12 Oct 2026: Prospectus lodged.
• 23 Oct 2026: Expected first day of ASX trading

What does Firmus do?

Firmus builds AI data centres and sells the computing power inside them. This makes it a 'neocloud', rather than a traditional data centre operator, like NextDC ($NXT).

Rather than simply leasing out space and power to cloud providers, Firmus acts more like a utility.

It buys the Nvidia chips itself, installs them in its own facilities, and sells AI companies the compute. Its customers include OpenAI, Meta and Nvidia.

Firmus calls its facilities 'AI factories', and it builds them in modular units rather than as one-off construction projects.

Its edge, at least on paper, is energy. Firmus came out of bitcoin mining in Tasmania, where cheap hydro power and the need to keep thousands of machines cool forced it to get good at both. It uses immersion cooling, effectively submerging the hardware in a non-conductive fluid, and claims better power efficiency than industry peers.

What’s the Firmus IPO date?

At this stage, Firmus is expected to start trading on the ASX on Thursday 23 October 2026.

The prospectus lodges on 12 October, and that document will confirm the retail offer dates, the application process and the final listing timetable.

What’s the expected Firmus IPO share price?

The offer price is $11 per share, and it's fixed. There's no price range like you'd typically see in a US listing.

If you buy through the offer, $11 is what you pay. If you buy on market from 23 October, you pay whatever the market is charging that day, which could be more or less.

$11.00 was set below what Firmus was pitching earlier in the process. During pre-marketing, figures above $50B were being floated, and one investment bank reportedly went as high as US$90B. Coming in at $43.7B means the institutional market pushed back on price before the deal got away. That's generally a healthy sign, though it also tells you the valuation was contested.

Firmus valuation

At $11.00 a share, Firmus is worth about $43.7B (US$30.6B). That would put it among Australia's 20 largest listed companies on day one, roughly alongside Woolworths ($WOW).

That valuation has nearly tripled in two months, from about US$10.5B at its August funding round to US$30.6B at the IPO price.

Its rapid revaluation is part of why analyst opinion is divided. Buying at $11 means paying close to three times what the last private investors paid eight weeks earlier.

Firmus also has debt. A US$10B facility led by Blackstone is already in place, and reporting suggests borrowings could climb to as much as US$30B as the data centres get built.

This takes us to the enterprise value, which is what it actually costs to own the whole business. That's been reported at between US$50B and US$65B.

Valuation timeline

• October 2026: IPO priced at $11.00, about $43.7B (US$30.6B)
• August 2026: US$2B strategic round at about US$10.5B post-money
• April 2026: US$505M round led by Coatue Management
• February 2026: US$10B debt facility secured
• September 2025: Valued at around $1.85B

What is the ticker symbol for Firmus?

Firmus has been reported as listing under the ASX code AIF, but the company hasn't confirmed it. The prospectus will have the final ticker.

How to buy shares in Firmus

Once Firmus lists on 23 October, buying it works the same as any other ASX stock.

1. Open a stock investing account

If you want to buy Firmus stock, you'll need to sign up to an investing platform with ASX market access. Lucky for you, Stake has access to both ASX and U.S. stock exchanges.

2. Fund your account

You'll complete an application with your personal details and verify your identity. Then fund the account in Australian dollars by bank transfer.

3. Search for Firmus

Find the asset by searching for the name or ticker symbol. Do your own research to ensure it is the right investment product for your own circumstances.

4. Choose an order type and buy the asset

Buy on any trading day with a market, limit or stop order. Look into dollar cost averaging to spread out your risk, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals.

5. Monitor your investment

Track how it performs with a long-term view. As an Australian-listed company, any future dividends could come with franking credits, and you'll have voting rights as a shareholder. Firmus isn't forecasting profits yet, so dividends are unlikely in the near term.

Get started investing in minutesFrom self-directed stock market investing to hassle-free SMSFs and a managed fund with a consistent target, Stake has a suite of options to help you grow your long-term wealth.

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Can you buy Firmus pre IPO?

Applying through any retail offer is the only way most Australian investors can buy at the $11.00 offer price. It's expected to run through participating brokers once the prospectus lodges on 12 October, and allocations aren't guaranteed.

Beyond that, no. Firmus is privately held until it lists, and pre-IPO shares have only been available to institutional and strategic investors.

It's also worth knowing that around half the offer has reportedly been set aside for existing shareholders topping up their stakes, which leaves a relatively small free float of roughly 16%.

Are there any ETFs that hold Firmus?

Not yet. Firmus is private until it lists, so no ETF has exposure. Once it's trading:

Index inclusion isn't automatic. S&P generally wants about eight weeks of trading liquidity before a new listing can join a benchmark at a quarterly rebalance, which could push ASX 200 entry out to March 2027.

There's disagreement on timing. Some brokers expect fast-tracked entry to the S&P/ASX 100 and 200 given the size. ETF managers have been more cautious, since index providers also weigh free float and daily trading value, and Firmus' free float is only around 16%.

Once it's in, trackers buy automatically. Any ASX 200 or ASX 100 fund would hold it at whatever weight the index assigns.

More about Firmus

Firmus Technologies was founded in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield and Jonathan Levee.

It started life mining bitcoin in Tasmania, drawn by cheap hydroelectric power, then pivoted to AI infrastructure and brought the cooling and energy know-how with it. The company is now headquartered in Sydney.

Its flagship Australian project is Project Southgate in Tasmania. Internationally, the biggest build is a 360MW campus in Batam, Indonesia, developed with DayOne Data Centers and giving access to around 170,000 Nvidia accelerators.

Firmus has signed agreements with some of the largest names in AI:

• OpenAI, anchor customer, taking capacity from two Malaysian sites between 2027 and 2034
• Meta, cloud services agreement running February 2026 to June 2031, reportedly worth about US$750M
• Nvidia, Australian order form running to January 2031

Total contracted capacity is more than 900 megawatts, and the company has guided to US$25B to US$30B of offtake agreements over its first six years.

Who owns Firmus?

Firmus is backed by a group of global investors, several of whom are also commercial partners:

• Nvidia, supplier, revenue-share partner, customer and shareholder
• Blackstone, equity investor and lead on the US$10B debt facility
• Coatue Management, led the April 2026 round
• Jane Street, participated in the August 2026 raise

Founders Curtis, Rosenfield and Levee retain substantial stakes. Reporting suggests founder shares will sit in escrow, with 10% released after a year and a further 39.9% after two.

Who are Firmus' competitors?

Firmus sits between two groups: the US-listed "neoclouds" running the same business model, and the ASX data centre names that are its local peers but operate differently.

Listed neoclouds, the closest comparisons

• CoreWeave ($CRWV). The largest listed AI neocloud and the nearest direct comparison. Rents GPU compute to AI companies.
• Nebius ($NBIS). Amsterdam-based AI cloud provider with a multi-year agreement with Microsoft.
• IREN ($IREN). Australian-founded and Nasdaq-listed. Also moved from bitcoin mining into AI cloud.

ASX data centre stocks, local peers on a different model

• NextDC (ASX: NXT). Australia's largest listed independent data centre operator. A landlord rather than a compute seller.
• Goodman Group (ASX: GMG). Property group with a large and growing data centre development pipeline.
• DigiCo Infrastructure REIT (ASX: DGT). Pure-play data centre landlord across Australia and North America. Listed at $5.00 in December 2024 and has traded below that since.

How will Firmus perform going public?

The market is relatively split on this one, which is unusual for a float this size.

The case for: the bookbuild was oversubscribed and closed early. The customer list is OpenAI, Meta and Nvidia on contracts running into the 2030s. Nvidia backed it with equity, not just hardware. On forward earnings multiples it's priced below CoreWeave. And the ASX has very little exposure to AI infrastructure, so there's a structural argument that local investors and index funds will want it.

The case against: several well-known fund managers have said publicly they're not buying. Plato Investment Management has said it intends to short the stock on listing, calling the valuation a bet on "five years of flawless execution from a loss-making business". Airlie Funds Management has said it doesn't see the upside from these levels.

What could make early trading bumpy: the free float is only around 16%, which is thin for a top-20 company, and thin floats amplify moves in both directions. The most recent big Australian data centre float, DigiCo, listed at $5.00 in December 2024 and has traded well below that since. A useful reminder that a big name and a big raise don't guarantee a good debut.

We’ll update this article when more information becomes available.

🎓 Learn more: What is an initial public offering and how do they work?→

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Kylie Purcell

Senior Markets Commentator

Kylie Purcell is an investments analyst and finance journalist with over a decade of experience covering global markets, investment products and digital assets. Her commentary has been featured in publications including the Australian Financial Review, Yahoo Finance and The Motley Fool. She has a Masters Degree in International Journalism from Cardiff University and a Certificate of Securities and Managed Investments (RG146).