Firmus postpones IPO, considers private funding round

Firmus Grid Ltd. was supposed to deliver one of the biggest stock market debuts in Australian history. Instead, it is heading back to private investors. The Nvidia-backed data center operator plans to postpone its initial public offering and consider a private funding round, according to Bloomberg. The planned A$7 billion listing ran into a problem no prospectus can fix: not enough buyers at the asking price. What happened to the Firmus IPO Firmus had priced the offering at A$11 per share. The deal was designed to lift the company’s equity valuation to nearly A$30 billion once over-allotments were included. Institutional bookbuilding wrapped up in early October 2026. In this case, the tally fell short. Interest from foreign investors reportedly waned during the process, which contributed to the decision to shelve the offering. The fallout was not limited to Firmus. Shares of Maas Group Holdings, a backer of the company, dropped 30% amid concerns surrounding the IPO. A growth story that ran into the public markets The company was founded in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield, and Jonathan Levee. In the years since, it has built a client list that includes Meta and OpenAI. It runs...