The Australian AI data-center operator is seeking about A$7.1 billion at a valuation near A$43.7 billion. Demand has already exceeded the base offer, and about half the shares are earmarked for existing backers.
One of the year's largest initial public offerings in Australia enters its final week of marketing with the price already fixed.
Firmus, the data-center developer building capacity for artificial intelligence workloads, has set its offer price at A$11 a share, valuing the company at about A$43.7 billion, or US$30.6 billion. The base offer is about A$7.1 billion. The bookbuild opens on Tuesday, Oct. 6, and is scheduled to close at noon on Friday, Oct. 9, unless it is accelerated. The shares are expected to list on Oct. 23 under the ticker AIF.
Indications of interest already exceed the base offer size.
Who gets the shares
About half of the offering is set to be allocated to existing strategic and financial investors. That has two effects. It reduces execution risk, since a large part of the book is spoken for before it opens. It also limits how much stock reaches new institutional and retail investors.
The arithmetic shows how thin the float will be. A A$7.1 billion offer is about 16% of the company's A$43.7 billion valuation. If half goes to existing holders, new investors will receive shares worth roughly A$3.6 billion, or about 8% of the company. A small free float combined with strong demand is a familiar recipe for a strong debut, and for volatility once lockups expire.
A private-to-public repricing test
Firmus is also a test of how public investors value AI infrastructure built with private capital. The company's backers have funded its buildout privately. At A$43.7 billion, the IPO asks public markets to accept a valuation set largely by those private rounds and by the demand outlook for AI computing.
That makes the after-market price an important signal. A strong debut would validate private valuations for AI infrastructure; a weak one would suggest public investors want a discount to the private rounds.
The global backdrop
The offer arrives as AI-linked stocks continue to lead global markets. Tokyo's Nikkei rose 2.4% on Monday on technology names, and Foxconn reported a 47% jump in third-quarter revenue on server demand. Firmus will be priced into that sentiment, and its trading will in turn give a read on how deep demand for AI exposure runs outside the U.S.
What to watch: Whether the book closes early, which would signal demand well above the base offer, and the trading in the first sessions after the Oct. 23 listing. A debut well above A$11 would likely encourage other Asia-Pacific AI infrastructure owners to consider listings.