Nvidia is reportedly in talks to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into Australian AI cloud company Firmus, weeks after it scrapped plans for an initial public offering that aimed to raise $5 billion.
The potential deal signals continued support for a debt-laden neocloud sector, The Information reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the discussions. Bloomberg also reported the news. Nvidia, the world's most valuable company with a market capitalization of more than $5.2 trillion, has previously invested in Firmus and several similar AI cloud providers.
The Latent reached out to Nvidia and Firmus for comment.
IPO plans scrapped
Earlier this month, Firmus, which was set to float on Oct. 23, cited recent market volatility and prevailing market conditions as reasons behind its decision to withdraw its application to list on the ASX.
"The board determined that the terms on which the offer could proceed would not appropriately reflect the strength of the company's business and long-term growth outlook," the company said at the time. "The board therefore concluded that proceeding with the offer was not in the best interests of the company and its shareholders."
Firmus' board confirmed that it would pursue private funding instead, abandoning a flotation that previously valued the firm at approximately $30 billion.
In September, Firmus announced it had signed strategic AI infrastructure agreements with Meta for compute capacity at its sites in Southeast Asia. The firm has also signed a multi-year deal with OpenAI to provide dedicated AI compute capacity at two Firmus sites in Malaysia.