Australian billionaire James Packer's AI bet in doubt after $30 billion IPO flop

Australian billionaire James Packer is among the investors left waiting on Firmus Technologies, the artificial intelligence data center builder that scrapped what would have been one of Australia's largest stock market listings and is now trying to raise money privately.

Firmus withdrew its application to list on the Australian Securities Exchange on Oct. 9, about two weeks before its shares were due to start trading. The company had planned to sell shares at A$11 each to raise about A$7.1 billion ($4.9 billion), a price that would have valued it at about A$43.7 billion ($30.6 billion). Demand fell short, and advisers had discussed cutting the price to A$8.25 a share before the board pulled the deal. Firmus said proceeding "was not in the best interests of the company and its shareholders."

Packer, the former Crown Resorts chairman, put $50 million into Firmus in April, when the company was valued at about $5.5 billion, according to The Australian. Forbes estimates his net worth at $3.55 billion, which makes him Australia's 22nd-richest person.

Since the listing collapsed, Packer has criticized the way Australia treats ambitious founders, saying the country "tends to tear down" entrepreneurs while the United States backs them. Firmus co-founder Oliver Curtis has made a similar argument, calling the failed float a missed opportunity for Australian capital markets. Curtis told critics to "come back and chase me in 12 months."

What spooked investors

Fund managers pointed to more specific problems. Firmus's valuation climbed from about A$1.85 billion in September 2025 to more than $10.5 billion after a $2 billion funding round in August that brought in Blackstone and Jane Street alongside existing backers Coatue Management and Nvidia Corp. The IPO price would have roughly tripled that figure two months later.

The business behind the valuation is still small. Firmus had about A$50 million in revenue last year. It has more than 900 megawatts of capacity contracted to customers including OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc., but only about 46 megawatts was operating at the time of the offer, spread across sites in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

"It just doesn't have a compelling valuation," John Pearce, chief investment officer of Australian pension fund UniSuper, said after the deal was pulled. He also said Firmus would need to keep raising debt and equity to pay for its expansion. Jun Bei Liu of Ten Cap said investor "confidence evaporated" during the offer period.

Other investors were wary of the share structure. About half of the allocation would have gone to early backers, and roughly 42% of shares would not have been subject to escrow, which means they could have been sold soon after listing.

Private money and a possible Nasdaq listing

Firmus is now discussing a private funding round of $2 billion to $3 billion with existing investors, Bloomberg reported. The company is also believed to be weighing a listing on Nasdaq in New York.

Any new round will set a fresh price for the company. If it comes in below the IPO valuation but above the price Packer paid in April, his stake would still show a large paper gain. A round at a lower valuation, or one that issues many new shares, would dilute existing shareholders. Firmus is private, and the current value of Packer's stake has not been disclosed.

Packer, 59, is the son of the late media tycoon Kerry Packer. He built Crown into one of Australia's biggest casino operators and sold his remaining stake to Blackstone in 2022 as part of the private equity firm's A$8.9 billion takeover of the company. Since then he has invested more widely, and Firmus gives him a direct stake in the race to build computing capacity for artificial intelligence.

Curtis owns about 13% of Firmus, Nvidia about 7.2%, Coatue 8.4% and Blackstone 6.7%, according to Forbes Australia.