Australia's Firmus Technologies strikes AI access deal with Nvidia

Australian AI infrastructure company Firmus Technologies announced on Monday that it has signed a strategic partnership with Nvidia to provide emerging artificial intelligence companies with more affordable access to high-performance computing infrastructure.

Under the agreement, Firmus will purchase Nvidia AI infrastructure and offer Nvidia-powered cloud services to AI-native customers and other businesses. The deal is expected to generate product revenue for Nvidia, while the U.S. chipmaker will also receive a share of the cloud services revenue, News.az reports.

The partnership includes the deployment of 170,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) between the first quarter of 2027 and early 2028. The AI infrastructure will be based in Batam, Indonesia.

Firmus said customer commitments indicate the agreement could generate up to $30 billion in revenue during its first six years.

The company said the partnership is designed to make advanced AI computing infrastructure more accessible to startups and smaller AI developers, allowing them to compete with larger technology companies.

"We have worked to figure out how to close the gap between the cost benefits that the large guys have access to... This is actually a really material way to level the playing field a little bit to give the next a chance to compete with the big guys," Firmus co-Chief Executive Tim Rosenfield told Reuters.

Nvidia is also an existing investor in Firmus, having participated in the Australian company's previous fundraising rounds.

Firmus said in April it had raised $1.35 billion over the previous six months, valuing the company at $5.5 billion after the funding round. According to people familiar with the matter, the company has also appointed investment banks to prepare for a potential initial public offering (IPO).