Nvidia Moves to Back GPU Cloud Provider Firmus After Investors Balk at Its IPO
Phoebe Liu reports that Nvidia is in talks to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Australian AI cloud provider Firmus, which abruptly pulled its IPO earlier this month (people familiar with the talks). After the failed listing, in which it reportedly sought $5B at a reported $30B valuation that investors found too high and speculative, Firmus is trying to raise at least $2B privately; Nvidia was poised to invest a material amount, per one person. Firmus is seven years old, is backed by Blackstone, Coatue and Jane Street, and has raised more than $13B in total, including about $10B of debt; Nvidia joined its last three rounds. In June Nvidia agreed to backstop Firmus's purchase of racks with at least 170,000 Rubin and Blackwell GPUs (an estimated $15B), headed for a Batam, Indonesia data centre built by DayOne. Context: CoreWeave and smaller public neoclouds fell about 20% last week; CoreWeave's CEO privately blamed smaller neoclouds like Firmus for hurting the sector's reputation; Nvidia is now offering shorter-term credit support for a smaller revenue cut after some bigger neoclouds passed on its first offer (one executive). Caveats: Nvidia's amount could change and the raise could still fall apart; Bloomberg reported the private round earlier, but Nvidia's role was not previously reported.
Why it matters
It shows Nvidia stepping in as investor of last resort for a neocloud whose IPO failed, a signal of how far the chipmaker will go to keep GPU buyers financed. That matters for Dealroom's tracking of AI-infrastructure funding, private-market valuations after pulled IPOs (Firmus, Lambda, AirTrunk, SB Energy), and Nvidia's role as a strategic investor.
Executive takeaways
- Down-round dynamics: Firmus went from a reported $30B IPO target and $5B raise to a private raise of at least $2B, with Nvidia as a likely anchor.
- Nvidia as backstop: on top of equity, it agreed in June to guarantee Firmus's ~$15B purchase of 170,000+ Rubin and Blackwell GPUs; its total exposure to neoclouds and large customers is more than $170B by The Information's analysis.
- Leverage: about $10B of Firmus's $13B+ raised is debt, the same structure now pressuring CoreWeave.
- Sector split: CoreWeave's CEO privately blamed smaller players like Firmus, while Jensen Huang said CoreWeave won't need further Nvidia credit support.
- Terms softening: Nvidia now offers shorter-term credit support for a smaller revenue cut after bigger neoclouds passed.
- Knock-on: DayOne, which builds Firmus's Batam site, is itself trying to go public.
- Not final: the investment amount could change and the raise could collapse.
What The Information may be missing
No valuation for the new private round, so the size of the markdown from the $30B IPO target is unknown. No detail on the terms of Nvidia's investment (preferred, structured, tied to chip purchases) or whether existing investors Blackstone, Coatue and Jane Street are participating. No Firmus customer or revenue figures, which are what decide whether the debt can be serviced. Little on what happens to the Batam build and DayOne's IPO if the raise fails, and no comment from Firmus is reported.
