Oliver Curtis, formerly incarcerated at Cooma Correctional Centre, was poised to see his AI data centre company Firmus go public with a $43.7 billion valuation this October. However, the planned sharemarket listing faced setbacks when investment bankers reduced the initial share price from $11 to $8.25 due to investor concerns over the high valuation and limited revenue. Curtis, who owns about 13% of Firmus before the listing, could lose up to a billion dollars in paper wealth if the company’s shares drop by $2.75 per share. The article highlights the rapid growth of Firmus compared to its actual performance, with only two operational data centres and reported revenue of just $50 million last year.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-08,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
October was supposed to be former Cooma Correctional Centre resident Oliver Curtis’ moment not just of redemption, but ascension.
asserted
October → suppose → redemption
Had the AI data centre company he co-founded, Firmus, gone public at a $43.7 billion valuation this month, Curtis’ corporate apotheosis would have been complete.
asserted
apotheosis → co → valuation
Instead, the seven-year-old start-up’s plans for a sharemarket listing were hanging in the balance on Thursday morning, after its bankers cut the share price for the big institutions that buttress an ASX float before it starts trading from $11 to $8.25.
asserted
it → hang → 8.25
And there were concerns the whole listing scheduled for October 23 could topple over.
uncertain
listing → be → October
Curtis, who is Firmus’ chief executive and largest individual shareholder, owning about 13 per cent before the planned sharemarket listing, stood to end up with a stake worth billions if everything went to plan.
asserted
everything → own → plan
Valuing such a shareholding amid the tumult of a public offering is difficult, but if the company’s shares drop the $2.75 to $8.25 The Australian Financial Review reported, that could imply a drop in Curtis’ paper wealth in the region of $1 billion.
uncertain
that → value → billion
Investors had got cold feet, wary of Firmus’ high price, comparatively minimal revenue and aggressive forecasts of building lots of data centres around the world, running them efficiently and selling their output to AI giants like Meta.
asserted
Investors → get → Meta
The company had surged from seeking a $1.2 billion valuation in late 2024, to raising money at a $6 billion valuation in November 2025, $15 billion in August this year, and then trying to more than double that again this month.
asserted
company → surge → that
Of course, what goes up need not come down in financial markets.
asserted
goes → go → markets
Just look at Nvidia, where the AI chipmaker’s shares are up more than 1000 per cent over five years to $US237 ($340).
asserted
shares → look → US237
That makes some sense, at least to AI bulls: its revenue has risen more than tenfold too.
asserted
revenue → make → bulls
Firmus, by contrast, has all of two data centres in operation and reportedly recorded just $50 million revenue last year.
uncertain
Firmus → have → revenue
Its target valuation was a cool 874 times that revenue number, to say nothing of profit.
asserted
valuation → say → profit
And this week, it had to concede that its marquee partnership with established Australia data centre company CDC, touted as being worth potentially more than $70 billion, was over.
asserted
partnership → have → CDC
Curtis is not the only one in line for a major hit if the listing goes bad.
asserted
listing → go → hit
His co-founders Jonathan Levee and Tim Rosenfield both have significant stakes in the company, as does his father and former Firmus chairman, Nick Curtis.
asserted
father → have → company
Unless things go irredeemably, catastrophically wrong, all will remain wealthy men.
asserted
all → go → ?
They just won’t be on the fast track to being cash billionaires when the restrictions on share sales that come with a public offering lapse.
asserted
that → come → offering
Former NRL player Wes Maas restructured his $2.5 billion-odd industrial materials and construction company earlier this year around his plans to build facilities for Firmus.
asserted
Maas → restructure → Firmus
Its shares were down by about a quarter on Thursday, valuing it at close to $1.9 billion.
asserted
shares → value → billion
Ellerston Capital’s JAADE fund, which is accessible to more or less any well-off Australian, too has become a proxy for Firmus because it has a stake in the privately held start-up.
asserted
it → become → up
In a disclosure document published on September 30, the fund was declaring it believes “the Firmus IPO has a relatively high degree of certainty” and cited analysis from the company’s bankers indicating it could be worth up to $US99 billion ($142 billion).
uncertain
it → publish → bankers
To state the obvious: that now looks far-fetched.
asserted
that → state → obvious
Karl Redenbach, the chief executive of a small start-up called AgenticScale that is trying to raise $US20 million and hopes to eventually list its business setting up micro AI facilities on the Nasdaq exchange in America, said Firmus was “incredible”.
asserted
Firmus → call → America
“I’m bullish because I’ve been in the US, and every client we talk to [says] the demand is not just there, but growing exponentially,” Radenbach said.
asserted
Radenbach → ’m → US
While he said his business was different to Firmus’ plans for large-scale so-called AI factories, he found both were tapping into the same demand for more capable AI agents that is beginning to surge.
asserted
that → say → agents
One venture capitalist, who is not a Firmus investor and spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had received numerous pitches like Radenbach’s since Firmus-mania began.
asserted
mania → speak → Radenbach
Whether they continue after this week is another question.
asserted
continue → continue → week
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion.
asserted
newsletter → deliver → stories
The Aporia
