--- title: "Australia's Firmus Lands 170,000 Nvidia Chips in a $30 Billion AI Bet" description: "Australian AI-infrastructure firm Firmus Technologies has struck a partnership with Nvidia for access to 170,000 of its prized AI chips — a rare, large allocation to a company outside the US cloud giants, and a sign of the global scramble to lock up scarce computing power." category: "Markets" category_url: https://boursel.com/category/markets author: "Daniel Okonkwo" published: 2026-06-28T14:43:00.000Z updated: 2026-06-28T14:43:00.000Z canonical: https://boursel.com/article/australias-firmus-lands-170000-nvidia-chips-in-a-30-billion-ai-bet tags: ["nvidia", "ai", "data-centers", "firmus", "australia", "chips"] --- # Australia's Firmus Lands 170,000 Nvidia Chips in a $30 Billion AI Bet Australian AI-infrastructure firm Firmus Technologies has struck a partnership with Nvidia for access to 170,000 of its prized AI chips — a rare, large allocation to a company outside the US cloud giants, and a sign of the global scramble to lock up scarce computing power. The global race for AI computing power has a new entrant with serious firepower. **Firmus Technologies**, an Australian AI-infrastructure company, said it has signed a strategic partnership with **Nvidia** that gives it access to **170,000 graphics processing units (GPUs)** — the specialized chips that train and run modern AI — [Investing.com reported](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/australias-firmus-technologies-strikes-ai-access-deal-with-nvidia-4764147). ## The terms Firmus will receive the chips **in phases from the first quarter of 2027 to the start of 2028**, and deploy them in a new data center in **Batam, Indonesia**, per the report. The company expects the arrangement to generate up to **$30 billion in revenue over its first six years**, as it rents out the computing capacity to customers who need to train and run AI models. Nvidia, for its part, earns from selling the hardware and takes a share of the resulting cloud revenue. ## Why these chips are so coveted An **AI accelerator** — Nvidia's specialty — is a chip purpose-built for the massive parallel math that AI requires; Nvidia's are the industry standard, and demand has run far ahead of supply for years. The bulk of each new generation's output is snapped up first by the **hyperscalers** — Amazon, Microsoft and Google's clouds — leaving smaller and regional players scrambling for inventory. A 170,000-chip allocation to a company most readers have never heard of is therefore notable in itself. ## 'Sovereign AI' and the pitch The deal sits inside a broader trend often called **sovereign AI**: countries and regions wanting their own AI computing capacity rather than renting everything from a handful of American giants. Firmus, which builds energy-focused "AI factory" data centers, frames itself as a cheaper alternative for the smaller AI companies that can't command the hyperscalers' attention or prices. "This is actually a really material way to level the playing field a little bit to give the next generation a chance to compete with the big guys," co-chief executive Tim Rosenfield said. The company is no minnow: it [raised $1.35 billion over six months and reached a $5.5 billion valuation in April](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/australias-firmus-technologies-strikes-ai-access-deal-with-nvidia-4764147), with Nvidia itself among the investors, and is reported to be preparing for an eventual stock-market listing. Its Australian build-out, "Project Southgate," aims to scale data-center capacity across several cities over the next few years. ## What it signals Two forces are visible in one deal. First, the **chip shortage** is real and persistent enough that securing a guaranteed multi-year supply is itself a competitive edge worth building a business around. Second, the AI build-out is **going global and going regional** — Nvidia is increasingly striking deals with national and regional providers (Firmus is deploying in Indonesia, anchored in Australia) to serve markets and customers the US hyperscalers don't fully reach. A word of caution befits the scale: the **$30 billion** is Firmus's own projection of future revenue, resting on customer demand that has to actually materialize, and the chips don't even start arriving until 2027. The AI-infrastructure boom has produced enormous announced numbers; how many convert into durable businesses is the question hanging over the whole sector. What's concrete today is the allocation — and in a market where the binding constraint is access to Nvidia's chips, locking up 170,000 of them is a genuine head start. ## Sources - [Australia's Firmus Technologies strikes AI access deal with Nvidia](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/australias-firmus-technologies-strikes-ai-access-deal-with-nvidia-4764147)