ASIC investigates banks over Firmus IPO collapse. October 30, 2026 3:11 am Business Australia's corporate regulator is scrutinizing investment banks over the collapsed $44 billion public listing of artificial intelligence start-up Firmus. The probe follows a financial loss and doubt cast over multibillion-dollar chip commitments after investors balked at the float. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has opened targeted inquiries into the joint lead managers behind the aborted initial public offering of data centre operator Firmus. The investigation centers on whether information provided to potential investors during the marketing and bookbuild process met regulatory standards for accuracy and reasonable backing. ASIC investigates Bank conduct during capital raising. ASIC chair Sarah Court confirmed the preliminary inquiries during a Senate estimates hearing, responding to questions raised about the conduct of the financial institutions steering the transaction. Global investment banks Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Morgans Financial headed the underwriting and capital-raising work to value the homegrown company at nearly $44 billion. Before the listing was pulled, those advisers had informed the market that major existing shareholders - led by Nvidia, Blackstone, and Coatue - already spoke for half of the targeted capital. Fund managers were told that demand far outpaced the stock available at the initial $11 offer price, which was later reduced in a bid to rescue the deal. One Morgans adviser even urged clients in writing to get a rattle on to secure allocations amid claims of outsized demand. ASIC is aware of questions raised about whether information provided to investors during the bookbuild was "accurate, appropriately qualified and supported by a reasonable basis at the time it was provided". Sarah Court, ASIC Chair Court stressed at the hearing that the inquiries remain preliminary and that no formal investigation has been launched. Financial realities behind the aborted multibillion-dollar float. News of the regulatory scrutiny broke alongside Firmus's audited annual report for the 2026 financial year, filed with ASIC. The documents reveal that the company posted a $US77.3 million loss before tax while spending $US1.5 billion on construction, property costs, and equipment. The enterprise, co-founded in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield, and Jonathan Levee, operated only two data centres and reported Australian annual revenue of just $US1,327. News subscription service The stalled public offering has left several major operational commitments in jeopardy. According to regulatory filings, Firmus faces a $US550 million pre-payment requirement due this year for its Indonesian data centre project in Batam, part of an overall $US8.3 billion commitment to develop the facility with NVIDIA. The company also faces about $US311 million in payments due by June next year for Australian developments under Project Southgate. Director loans provided high returns before market skepticism. The disclosures also shed light on early financial arrangements, including director loans carrying interest rates of up to 20 per cent. Mr. Curtis and former director Michael Rosenfield had provided loans and subsequently received rights to buy nearly 500,000 shares for one cent each - rights that would have been worth a combined $20 million at a September 2025 valuation. Both loans were repaid in July 2025. Despite backing from institutional investors such as Nvidia and Blackstone, the company faced growing market skepticism. Following the abandonment of what was set to be the biggest public offering on the Australian stock market since Telstra, Firmus announced it will pursue capital from private markets instead.

Top 10 richest young Australians revealed. There are three new faces at the top of the Young Rich List in 2026, with the wealth of one surging by 986 per cent since last year. Oct 29, 2026 - 5.00am Nine of the top 10 entrepreneurs ranked on the Financial Review Young Rich List this year are billionaires, up from six last year, despite the wealth of power couple Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht plummeting along with the value of their company. Three new faces this year grace the top 10 wealthiest Australians aged 40 and under, and three data centre entrepreneurs and a reluctant energy leader have pushed a couple of Young Rich List lurkers further down the order. Perkins and Obrecht, the married co-founders of design and publishing platform Canva, have topped the list, published in full on Friday, for the sixth year in a row. Over that time, Perkins, 39, and Obrecht, 40, have, like a cake-topper bride and groom, stood atop Australia's list of 100 wealthiest young entrepreneurs. This year, they're approaching the seven-year itch. Following the bungled rollout of new artificial intelligence products and the use of expensive third-party AI models to power Canva's product offerings, the company's valuation fell by $10 billion in August from its peak of $60 billion in 2025. The couple's wealth has dropped too. The $18.46 billion they shared last year was 41 per cent of the wealth of the entire Young Rich List. This year, their wealth is two-thirds of that, dropping to $12.5 billion. Canva is hardly the only company to experience highs and lows in the past 12 months. Growing concern about the rocketing valuations of AI infrastructure operators has led to the valuations of neocloud hopefuls Firmus and Nscale bouncing around like an AI in hallucination. Nevertheless, Firmus co-founder Tim Rosenfield's wealth has surged 986 per cent since last year, thanks to funding rounds that took the value of the company to $15.5 billion in August, up from $1.85 billion last September. Rosenfield's stake in Firmus, which in October failed to list on the ASX and secure a hoped-for $44 billion valuation, takes him up the list to No. 3 with a personal fortune of $1.71 billion. (Rosenfield's co-founders, cousin Oliver Curtis and Curtis' former brother-in-law, Jonathan Levee, are too old for the Young Rich List.) The other biggest jump this year concerns the founders of White Fox Boutique, Daniel and Georgia Contos, who move up 12 places to No. 5. The White Fox empire is now present in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. The couple owns at least $150 million worth of property in Sydney's Vaucluse and opened a head office in Rosebery this year. Making their Young Rich List debuts, both as billionaires and in the top 10, are Josh Payne and Nathan Townsend, who made their fortunes through Nscale, the London-based data centre builder backed by Nvidia. Nscale has cemented partnerships with tech and AI heavyweights Anthropic and Microsoft and is targeting a New York initial public offering at a $35 billion valuation this year. In 2019, Payne and Townsend set up Arkon Energy, a Melbourne-based bitcoin miner that morphed into Nscale. Payne has an estimated $1.23 billion fortune and makes his entry at No. 7. Townsend, who appears on the list at No. 8, stepped down as a director from Nscale in 2025. Playing his cards right is crypto casino billionaire Ed Craven, who maintains his No. 2 spot. His wealth rose 13 per cent to $5.2 billion. Craven's platform, Stake.com, founded with US-born Bijan Tehrani, processes billions of bets on sports, virtual table games and online slot machines. Stake.com is accessible and legal in more than 150 countries, not including Australia. Between 2020 and 2022, Stake's gross gaming revenue rose from about $100 million to more than $2 billion, enabling the duo to launch a second business, Kick, which has not come without controversy. In August 2026, two Frenchmen were found guilty of online violence towards a man who died while being live-streamed on the platform. Craven is also the cornerstone investor in Maincode Ventures, a fund that takes 50 per cent of equity in start-ups it invests in. It is an offshoot of the AI lab funded by Craven last year, Maincode, which is building Australia's answer to ChatGPT. Helping round out the top 10 is fast-car-loving Adrian Portelli, the founder of subscription rewards business LMCT+, who maintains his No. 4 spot. In August, Portelli and his family relocated to Dubai. In October, he garnered media attention by appearing on the Straight Talk with Mark Bouris podcast, telling the host he had moved there not to avoid paying Australian taxes but to escape media attention. James Ferguson and Robbie Ferguson, the sibling co-founders of crypto firm Immutable, drop from 3rd spot to 6th. Nick Molnar takes the No. 9 spot this year. Molnar co-founded payments platform Afterpay, which was sold for $39 billion in 2022. And debuting on the list at No. 10 is David Riches, the founder, managing director and chief executive of ASX-listed power and renewables company GenusPlus Group, valued at $1.6 billion. Vitamin queen Jessica Sepel and tech entrepreneur Paul Stovell of Octopus Deploy have lost their spots in the top 10 in 2026, simply for being mere millionaires. Top 10 richest Australians under 40. * Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht * Ed Craven * Tim Rosenfield * Adrian Portelli * Daniel and Georgia Contos * James Ferguson and Robbie Ferguson * Josh Payne * Nathan Townsend * Nick Molnar * David Riches The November issue of AFR Magazine, including the Young Rich List, is out on Friday, October 30, inside The Australian Financial Review. Follow AFR Mag on Instagram.

Firmus yet to secure full funding for Tasmanian AI data centre project. Posted about 4h ago, updated 41m ago In short: Firmus, the AI data centre company headed by Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield, has three projects in the works in Tasmania. The company says full funding for its Long Reach site has not been secured. Firmus also says "all of our energy will be developed and procured on-island in Tasmania," correcting previous incorrect information it attributed to a consultant report. Firmus Technologies says one of its three planned AI data centres in Tasmania's north is not yet funded, while other parts of its operation are still subject to development approval. Firmus, which stunned the financial world after abandoning its plan to list on the Australian stock exchange earlier this month, is forging ahead with its Tasmanian projects despite the recent setback. The company, headed by Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield, is building an AI data centre in the Launceston suburb of St Leonards, has approval for another at Long Reach in the state's north, and is seeking approval for a third at Wesley Vale in the north-west. Firmus general energy manager Paul Grzinic fronted Tasmania's parliamentary energy committee on Tuesday. Mr Grzinic joined Firmus in June this year, after more than 11 years as the manager of wholesale energy at state-owned retailer Aurora Energy. Greens MP Vica Bayley asked Mr Grzinic about Firmus's ability to fund its Tasmanian projects, given the failure of its recent attempt to attract investors. "The Launceston site is obviously fully funded, Wesley Vale stage one is also fully funded," Mr Grzinic told the committee. "And with regards to the other sites, obviously they're still subject to DA [development approval]." The project at Long Reach, in the Bell Bay Advanced Manufacturing Zone, is the largest of the three at 288 megawatts. George Town Council has approved the development, though Firmus is appealing a condition that limits the use of its backup diesel generators. Meanwhile, Latrobe Council has asked Planning Minister Kerry Vincent to consider assessing the Wesley Vale proposal as a major project. "DA is an important trigger for us to progress the funding components," Mr Grzinic said. After withdrawing its application to list on the ASX, Firmus said it would pursue private funding. In a statement, a Firmus spokesperson outlined the funding status of each Tasmanian project. "St Leonards is well advanced in construction and contracted to a customer," they said. "Stage 1 of Wesley Vale is also contracted to a customer and has funding allocated but is still awaiting development approval. "Bell Bay has development approval and is under option to a customer. It is a much larger project and will be funded in stages as it progresses." Firmus would not confirm who the customers were. Firmus corrects record on Tasmanian energy generation. AI data centres are highly energy intensive, and Firmus has publicly committed to underwriting new renewable energy projects to supply its facilities. Earlier this month, Firmus's submission to a federal AI inquiry said those projects would not necessarily be in Tasmania. But Mr Grzinic told the committee that part of the submission, prepared by consultants Oxford Economics Australia, was a mistake. "That was an error and that was an interpretation from Oxford Economics on their assumption of how our policy would be applied," he said. "Wide Bay Lawn Services corrected that with them, saying, 'No, it's a site-specific requirement', and that's clear in its policy. "All of our energy will be developed and procured on-island in Tasmania. There will be no developments interstate to support our Tasmanian load." Hydro identifies three wind farms to supply Firmus. State-owned energy supplier Hydro Tasmania is assessing a request from Firmus for 444MW, with a decision expected by the end of the year. Using right-to-information laws, the ABC obtained a document sent by Hydro Tasmania to Firmus in June, in which Hydro outlined how it might approach powering the AI data centres. "The period of greatest focus sits between 2028 and 2030, when the full Firmus load is expected to be online but before new wind generation is commissioned," Hydro chief executive Rachel Watson said. Hydro said that during this time, if its dam levels were normal or optimal, it could supply Firmus, although it would have to supplement supply through the gas-fired Tamar Valley Power Station and by importing energy from interstate via subsea cable Basslink. Hydro said it was modelling the acceptable threshold to supply Firmus when dam levels were low or if there were limitations on Basslink. It said it could potentially supply Firmus with half its requested load, while the other half would be conditional on Basslink availability and the status of new renewable generation. The letter said Hydro had identified three planned Tasmanian wind farm projects that could supply Firmus once operational. "Individually, each project is well advanced in its development approvals and connection agreements," Hydro said. However, Hydro pointed out the projects would be competing for construction resources, meaning they would not all come online at once. The projects were not identified, but Tasmania has multiple in the pipeline - including the Whaleback Ridge, Robbins Island and North East wind farms. Mr Grzinic told the committee Firmus's preference was to underwrite about 1,000MW of new energy, such as wind, through Hydro Tasmania. "A wind farm has a capacity factor of around 40 per cent, so a 1,000-megawatt wind farm only produces on average 400 megawatts," he said. "We need to underwrite around 1,000 megawatts of wind, if we were to do wind."