# Firmus Funding: How Much It Raised, Its Valuation & Investors > Firmus raised $2 billion in a Series C round at a $10.5 billion valuation in August 2026, led by Coatue and Blackstone. Here's the full breakdown of the raise and the backers. _[Wortins Blog](https://www.wortins.com/blog) · Published Monday, August 17, 2026_ **Firmus raised $2 billion in a Series C round at a $10.5 billion valuation**, announced August 7, 2026 and led by **Coatue and Blackstone**. It's the fourth fundraise for the Australian AI data center operator in under a year, as capital keeps flowing toward the physical infrastructure needed to run AI workloads. Here's the full breakdown of the raise, the backers, and what Firmus plans to build. ## What is Firmus? Firmus is an **Australian energy-efficient AI data center operator** that builds what it calls "AI factories" — facilities using proprietary direct-to-chip cooling and grid-aware software to run hyperscaler-grade compute. Founded in **2019** by **Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield and Jonathan Levee**, the company positions its energy efficiency as a core differentiator rather than a side benefit, at a time when power availability is one of the biggest constraints on AI data center growth. "Grid-aware software" means Firmus's facilities can adjust their compute load in response to real-time conditions on the electricity grid, rather than drawing power at a fixed rate regardless of grid strain. Combined with direct-to-chip cooling — which circulates coolant straight to the chip rather than cooling an entire room — the approach is aimed at squeezing more usable compute out of every megawatt of power the company can secure, which matters enormously in a market where power, not chips, is often the binding constraint on how fast a data center operator can grow. ## The raise: $2B Series C The headline numbers: - **Amount:** $2 billion - **Round:** Series C - **Valuation:** $10.5 billion - **Announced:** August 7, 2026 - **Lead investors:** Coatue, Blackstone For context, Firmus has raised capital in quick succession over the past year: **$330 million** in September 2025, **$325 million** in November 2025, and **$505 million** in April 2026. The $2 billion Series C dwarfs all three combined, reflecting how sharply capital needs have grown as the company scales from early data center builds to a regional "AI factory" network. ## Who invested in Firmus? The round was led by **Coatue** and **Blackstone**, with participation from: - **NVIDIA** - **Jane Street** NVIDIA's involvement follows a pattern seen across much of the AI infrastructure market in 2026, where the chipmaker invests directly in the data centers that will ultimately run its GPUs. Jane Street's participation brings a quantitative trading firm's balance sheet into a physical infrastructure bet, a less common but increasingly visible crossover in AI-adjacent fundraises. Blackstone's role as a co-lead is also notable — as one of the world's largest alternative asset managers with deep experience in real estate and infrastructure, its involvement signals that Firmus's data centers are being underwritten with the same long-horizon, asset-heavy logic applied to other large-scale infrastructure investments, not just as a typical venture bet. ## What Firmus will do with the money Firmus says the funding will go toward **Project Southgate, its expansion across Asia-Pacific targeting 1.6 gigawatts of capacity by 2028**, along with continued **modular AI factory deployment across Australia and the broader region**. A 1.6GW target is a substantial buildout — power capacity at that scale requires not just capital but years of construction, grid negotiations and hardware procurement, which explains why Firmus has needed four funding rounds in roughly twelve months to keep pace. The "modular" framing of its AI factory deployment also matters: rather than building one massive facility, Firmus appears to be replicating a standardized design across multiple sites, which should let it scale capacity faster than a single, custom-engineered mega-campus would allow. ## Why it matters 1. **AI compute demand has made physical infrastructure the bottleneck.** As more companies move from AI pilots to production workloads, capital is shifting from model companies toward the data centers, power and cooling systems that make that compute possible — and Firmus's $10.5 billion valuation is among the highest for an infrastructure play outside the US. 2. **Asia-Pacific is emerging as a key AI infrastructure growth region.** Firmus's Project Southgate expansion signals that AI compute buildout is no longer concentrated in the US — investors are backing regional players positioned to serve hyperscalers closer to Asian demand centers. 3. **Energy efficiency is becoming a genuine competitive edge.** Firmus's direct-to-chip cooling and grid-aware software address both operating margins and environmental pressure, distinguishing it from data center operators competing purely on raw capacity — a dynamic also playing out across [AI data center funding in 2026](/blog/ai-data-center-funding-2026). Firmus's raise is a clear marker that the AI infrastructure buildout is going global, with energy efficiency and grid-aware design increasingly treated as fundamental rather than optional. Source: [Firmus Grid Raises $2B for AI Factory Expansion Across Asia-Pacific](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-07/ai-data-center-group-firmus-draws-2-billion-from-coatue-nvidia) --- *Following AI funding? Wortins tracks the biggest raises, valuations, and acquisitions daily in the [AI Funding Tracker](/funding).* ## Frequently asked questions ### How much did Firmus raise? Firmus raised $2 billion in a Series C round announced on August 7, 2026. ### What is Firmus's valuation? The Series C valued Firmus at $10.5 billion, following three prior rounds totaling roughly $1.16 billion in the preceding year. ### Who invested in Firmus? The round was led by Coatue and Blackstone, with participation from NVIDIA and Jane Street. ### What does Firmus do? Firmus is an Australian energy-efficient AI data center operator that builds 'AI factories' using proprietary direct-to-chip cooling and grid-aware software for hyperscaler compute. --- _Curated and written by [Wortins](https://www.wortins.com) — The daily AI briefing. Every story links to its original source; the "Wortins read" on each is our own original analysis. [About Wortins & our editorial approach](https://www.wortins.com/about)._