APAC-based AI cloud company Firmus has secured a US$505 million equity investment in a round led by Coatue.

Nvidia also participated in the round, subject to "certain closing conditions."

Revealed earlier this month, the investment will support Firmus' deployment of its AI infrastructure platform based on the Nvidia Vera Rubin DSX reference design across the Asia-Pacific region.

In addition, it will be used to support Firmus' Project Southgate in Australia - a data center development in partnership with CDC Data Centres and Nvidia.

Firmus first used the term ‘Project Southgate’ in September last year to describe an “AI factory” campus in Launceston, Tasmania. At the time, Firmus said the project, which it worked on in partnership with the Tasmanian Government, would deliver a combined 90MW of AI infrastructure by 2026.

Since then, the moniker has been used to describe multiple “AI factories” that are under construction across multiple Australian sites, with “thousands of GPUs planned for deployment," and expected to scale up to 1.6GW of infrastructure through 2028.

“AI demand is accelerating faster than the infrastructure required to support it,” said Robert Yin, general partner & head of AI Infrastructure at Coatue. “Firmus is closing that gap with an energy-efficient AI Factory model purpose-built for next-generation compute at a global scale. We’re proud to partner with Firmus as they build critical infrastructure for the future of AI.”

“This investment reinforces Australia’s role in global AI infrastructure while accelerating our Asia-Pacific growth strategy,” added Oliver Curtis, co-founder and co-CEO of Firmus. “Project Southgate provides a strong foundation for exporting efficient AI compute globally, and our experience in Singapore gives us a proven blueprint for scaling across Southeast Asia.”

The investment brings Firmus' total equity raised in the last six months to $1.35 billion, and gives the company a post-money valuation of $5.5bn. This includes $327m in equity raised in November 2025.

This is not the first time Coatue has backed Firmus. In just February of this year, Firmus secured a $10bn debt financing facility led by investment firms Blackstone and Coatue, similarly set to fund the rollout of its AI factory platform.

Project Southgate is targeting locations in Tasmania, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, and Perth at present.