Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer advises Firmus on its US$505 million pre-IPO equity raise

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (HSF Kramer) recently advised Firmus on its pre-IPO ~US$505 million equity raising. 

The investment was led by Coatue and included participation from NVIDIA. The raise valued the business at ~US$5.5 billion.

Firmus is an Australian AI infrastructure company that designs, builds and operates integrated liquid-cooled AI factories and provides GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) to global hyperscalers and other major customers. The new capital will fund the expansion of Firmus’s flagship AI infrastructure initiative. 

The HSF Kramer team was led by partner Stephen Dobbs, supported by solicitors Zoe Feldman and Belinda Reilly and graduate Talia Shulkin.

Stephen Dobbs said, “It was great working with the Firmus team on another pre-IPO raise and to continue to play a part in the incredible growth of this business. It is a cutting edge company in a cutting edge sector, and we would like to thank Firmus for allowing us to feel a little bit cutting edge by association!”

This deal is another example of HSF Kramer’s market-leading work in Australian equity raisings in the digital infrastructure and emerging tech sectors. Other recent examples include:

• Firmus on its prior pre-IPO equity raises. 
• PsiQuantum on the $1 billion Australian Government investment in its project to build the world’s first utility-scale quantum computer in Brisbane, Australia.
• NEXTDC on a range of strategic and operational matters, including its highly successful A$1.32 billion accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer in 2024.
• Consortium of private capital investors on their bid as part of the auction process for Airtrunk.
• HMC Capital on the A$2.75 billion IPO of DigiCo Infrastructure REIT. This was Australia’s largest IPO in 2024.
• ANZ on the D&C contract for the Tullamarine and Mt Waverley Data Centres.
• HRL Morrison & Co in relation to its A$350 million proposed majority acquisition via Infratil Limited (NZX/ASX:IFT) from a leading telecommunication company, HKT Limited, of its global network connection and NaaS business, Console Connect.
• AustralianSuper on its $2.5 billion deal with DigitalBridge Group to acquire a significant minority stake in Vantage Data centres EMEA.
• Kmart in respect of a competitive tender process for a major digital infrastructure transformation project.
• DigitalBridge on its investment into Edge Data Centres Pty Ltd.