Firmus, the ‘Southgate’ AI data center builder backed by Nvidia, hits $5.5B valuation
Singapore's Firmus raised $505M at a $5.5B valuation to build 'AI factories' using Nvidia's next-gen Vera Rubin platform.
Asia's AI infrastructure race just saw a massive new contender emerge. Singapore-based data center provider Firmus announced a $505 million funding round led by Coatue, catapulting its valuation to $5.5 billion. This latest injection brings the company's total capital raised in just six months to a staggering $1.35 billion, signaling intense investor confidence in the region's AI buildout. The company, which counts Nvidia as a key investor and partner, is pivoting aggressively from its origins in cooling technology for Bitcoin mining to become a pure-play AI infrastructure provider.
Firmus is channeling this capital into Project Southgate, an ambitious plan to construct a network of highly efficient 'AI factory' data centers across Australia and Tasmania. The facilities will be built using Nvidia's reference designs for optimal performance and energy efficiency. Crucially, Firmus has secured access to Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin AI computing platform, the successor to the current Blackwell architecture, which is slated to begin shipping in the second half of 2026. This positions Firmus to offer cutting-edge compute capacity just as demand for next-gen AI model training is expected to peak.
The company's rapid ascent from a crypto-adjacent cooling specialist to a multi-billion dollar AI infrastructure player mirrors a broader trend of capital chasing physical AI assets. Firmus's story underscores a critical bottleneck in the AI boom: the scarcity of specialized, power-efficient data centers capable of housing the latest hardware. By securing early access to Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform and deploying it at scale in a strategic Asia-Pacific location, Firmus is betting it can become a foundational layer for the region's AI development.
- Raised $505M at a $5.5B valuation, bringing total funding to $1.35B in just six months.
- Building 'Project Southgate' AI data centers in Australia/Tasmania using Nvidia reference designs and the next-gen Vera Rubin platform (2026).
- Pivoted from providing cooling tech for Bitcoin mining to becoming a major AI infrastructure provider, backed by Nvidia.
Why It Matters
It signals massive investment in physical AI infrastructure in Asia and addresses the critical shortage of next-gen data center capacity.