Nvidia-backed Firmus delays Australian listing, data center IPOs cast a shadow over companies queuing

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the Australian IPO of Firmus Grid Ltd., a data center company supported by Nvidia (NVDA.US), is expected to be delayed, which is an ominous sign for other companies planning to go public. Previously, AI infrastructure companies had a series of disappointing debuts.

According to reports, Firmus is about to decide to suspend an IPO of up to 5.5 billion US dollars and instead consider raising more capital through the private equity market. Previously, some investors thought the deal's pricing strategy was too aggressive.

Over the past month, US 10-year Treasury yields have risen sharply, putting pressure on interest-sensitive sectors. Roundhill Investments CEO Dave Mazza said that investors use to compare the so-called “new cloud” companies that investors use to compare many such companies, such as CoreWeave Inc. and Nebius Group NV, are among the AI stocks with the highest leverage ratio and the highest volatility.

“Bearish logic is entering a bright moment, as capital costs are out of control and long-term stocks are being impacted, so the short-term pattern is quite challenging,” Mazza said.

A number of companies have delayed the pace after publicly filing documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. According to regulations, companies must wait 15 days before starting the official IPO roadshow. Although AI cloud computing provider Nscale Ltd. and SB Energy Inc., an AI data center and power infrastructure developer supported by SoftBank Group, applied for a US listing last month, they have yet to start marketing their respective deals.

Singapore-based DayOne Data Centers Ltd. publicly applied for a US IPO earlier this week. According to the schedule, the official promotion to investors can begin on October 21.

According to people familiar with the matter, these companies all hope to find a distribution window while investors await the large-scale listing of cutting-edge AI lab Anthropic PBC, which may be carried out as early as November.

“The logic of these companies that we are optimistic about is that they can use computing power faster than traditional cloud service providers, but these companies have extremely high market sales rates and need to issue bonds to finance their business,” Mazza said. Its actively managed ETFs include the RoundHill Neocloud ETF.

“If you're Nscale and see Firmus's situation, this isn't a sign that gives you confidence to price an IPO,” he said.

A representative for Nscale declined to comment. Roundhill Neocloud ETF holdings, which include Nebius, CoreWeave, and iREN Ltd., fell 7.2% on Thursday.

AI spending is surging

According to data compiled by the market, companies seeking to capture or participate in the surge in AI-related spending have brokered two major deals, driving the weighted average return on US IPOs to 15% this year. This data does not include blank check companies and other financial instruments.

SpaceX's record listing of $86.2 billion, strongly emphasized its future AI-related business during the promotion. Its stock price has risen 19% since the IPO; the US Depositary Receipt of South Korean memory chip manufacturer SK Hynix has risen 14% since its listing.

In contrast, data center companies Csquare Inc. and Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust Inc. fell more than 15% each after their recent listing.

Several so-called “shovel sales” companies also performed poorly after going public this year. These companies provide exposure to AI-related industry activities, such as heating, cooling, and ventilation systems in data centers, or electrical equipment that keeps data centers running.

Despite this, market research predicts that generative AI spending will reach $2.3 trillion by 2032, of which AI agent deployment alone will be around $286 billion. With the corresponding increase in AI usage, many investors still believe that demand for data center computing power will continue to grow.

“There is indeed plenty of equity and debt financing in the market, but we think it's worth doing,” said Tim Griskie, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder.

“We think there's a lot of pent-up demand in the data center, and I don't think that's going to stop. It won't be easy, but there's plenty of growth ahead.”