Australian artificial-intelligence infrastructure firm Firmus Technologies has announced a new fundraising round of A$500 million (approximately US$325 million), its second major raise within two months, to advance its flagship initiative, Project Southgate.

The round is led by US chip-maker Nvidia Corporation and domestic fund manager Ellerston Capital, both existing investors in the company.

Firmus said the new proceeds will underpin deployment of data-centre campus infrastructure, energy-supply agreements and site development across Australia, in collaboration with CDC Data Centres and Nvidia.

Project Southgate is designed to achieve a capacity of up to 1.6 gigawatts of compute by 2028.

In September the company closed a A$330 million equity placement, bringing the post-money valuation to about A$1.85 billion.

With the latest raise, Firmus is positioning itself for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2026 as it scales its footprint in Australia’s rapidly expanding AI-infrastructure sector.

The first campus under Project Southgate is under way in Tasmania’s newly declared “Green AI Factory Zone” and includes liquid-cooled AI facilities powered by renewable energy sources and optimised for efficiency, cost and sustainability.

The firm emphasises that its infrastructure is built for peak energy and water efficiency and aims to serve enterprise, government and cloud clients both domestically and internationally.

Tim Rosenfeld, co-chief executive of Firmus, said the funding will enable the company to “meet demand quickly, cost-effectively, and in line with Australia’s renewable-energy future.” The initiative aligns Australia’s sovereign-infrastructure ambitions with global demand for AI compute capacity and reflects the country’s drive to capture a larger share of the digital-economy value chain.

With major technology and data-centre players investing heavily in Australia, Firmus’ funding round signals growing momentum in the build-out of domestic AI infrastructure.

The fresh capital will support expansion across multiple states, beginning with Tasmania and Melbourne and then extending to other regions as the project scales toward the 1.6 GW target by 2028.

Firmus also reports that its model enables the deployment of AI factories with significantly reduced energy and water use compared with legacy centres, reinforcing the firm’s positioning at the intersection of AI infrastructure growth and sustainability.

As the company continues raising capital ahead of an expected public listing, investors and industry watchers will monitor how Firmus executes its project pipeline and converts its technology ambition into operational scale and revenue generation.