(Feb 9): Australian AI startup Firmus Technologies pty secured a US$10 billion (RM39.35 billion) loan from a group including Blackstone Inc-led funds to boost its data centre rollout in one of the country’s largest private credit financings.
The funding, which also came from tech investment firm Coatue Capital LLC, will pay for the next phase of Firmus’ data centre expansion and will be boosted by Nvidia Corp’s chips, according to a company announcement on Monday. The AI infrastructure firm plans to construct data centres with a combined capacity of up to 1.6GW across Australia by 2028.
Australia is emerging as a major beneficiary of the global data centre build-out, becoming the world’s third-largest AI investment destination behind the US and China, according to research by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The resource-abundant country is on track to add about A$150 billion (RM414.65 billion) worth of data centres, it said.
Firmus, which is expected to go public in Sydney later this year, has become one of the most active data centre builders in Australia. It’s financed expansion projects across the country, from Perth to Sydney and Melbourne. In November, it raised A$500 million for site development, infrastructure deployment and energy deals. The company was valued around A$6 billion at the time.
Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, oversees US$1.3 trillion of assets. Its commitment to Firmus is provided through funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and Blackstone Credit & Insurance.
Investment in AI-related infrastructure such as data centres is projected to surpass US$3 trillion over the next five years, according to Moody’s Ratings, with much of the spending expected to be financed through debt. The combined capital expenditure of Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp may reach US$650 billion in 2026, driven by their expensive AI arms race. But the eye-watering scale of investment has raised concerns on Wall Street about how much of the cash burn — if any — will ultimately generate sustainable returns.