By Scott Murdoch
SYDNEY, June 29 (Reuters) – Australian AI infrastructure company Firmus Technologies said on Monday it had signed a strategic partnership āwith Nvidia Corp to help provide emerging AI firms with more ācost-effective access to computing power.
⢠Firmus said the deal would see it buy Nvidia infrastructure āand sell Nvidiaāpowered cloud services to “AI Native” customers, among others, in an agreement that would earn the U.S.-listed chip giant product revenue and a share of cloud revenue.
⢠The deal will deliver 170,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPU) from the āfirst quarter of 2027 to ā the start of 2028, that will be located in Batam, Indonesia.
⢠Firmus said it expected to earn up to $30 ā billion in revenue during the first six years of the deal, based on customer commitments.
⢠The Australian-founded company said the deal would make it easier for āsmaller āand developing AI firms to access the ātechnology’s infrastructure.
⢠“We have worked to āfigure out how to close the gap between the cost benefits that the large guys have access to, which they do because they have great credit ratings, and the guys that are up and comers,” Firmus co-chief executive Tim Rosenfield told Reuters. “This is actually a really material way to ālevel the playing field a little bit āto give the next a chance to compete āwith the big guys.”
⢠āNvidia has participated in Firmus’ previous capital raisings making it āan investor in the Australian firm, āaccording to Firmus.
⢠āFirmus said in April it had raised $1.35 billion over the previous six months, giving it a $5.5 billion post-money valuation. It has appointed investment ābanks to work on āa potential initial public offering, according to people familiar with āthe matter.
⢠Rosenfield declined to comment on Firmus’ IPO preparations.
(Reporting by āScott Murdoch; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
