Firmus Technologies, a Singapore-headquartered AI cloud provider, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) for AI infrastructure cooled by seawater.

Announced by the company last month, the MoU will see Firmus and the MPA evaluating the feasibility of deploying scalable AI infrastructure within waterfront facilities under the MPA's jurisdiction.

In addition to the MoU, Firmus is working with the Tasmanian government to establish an AI factory zone in the north of the island.

The two will study infrastructure concepts focused on reducing power and land requirements through the use of modular, liquid-cooled systems, as well as looking to meet the AI needs of the maritime, industrial, and public sector applications.

Tim Rosenfield, co-CEO of Firmus Technologies, said: “This collaboration with MPA marks a significant opportunity to explore how sovereign-scale compute can be delivered through sustainable, maritime-adjacent systems. Firmus is committed to advancing high-efficiency AI infrastructure with minimal environmental overhead. We look forward to contributing our technical expertise to support Singapore’s long-term digital and sustainability ambitions.”

Firmus is also currently looking to expand in Tasmania.

The company announced earlier this month that the Tasmanian government was looking to establish an AI Factory Zone in the north of the Island, at the core of which is Firmus' Project Southgate, a modular liquid cooled AI factory under construction in Launceston.

The entire "zone" will deliver a combined 90MW of AI infrastructure by 2026 in the first stage — with 44MW delivered under Stage 1a, and Stage 1b doubling capacity to 90MW. A further 300MW second stage is planned to follow, subject to final approvals. These AI Factories will provide a new digital baseload to support the growth of Tasmania’s renewable energy sector and enable sustainable expansion in AI infrastructure.

Stage 1a alone will see up to AU$2.1 billion (US$1.37bn). The zone will be powered by renewable energy.

“This is about turning Tasmania’s clean energy into opportunity — opportunity for jobs, for innovation, and for global leadership in the future of artificial intelligence,” Tasmania's Premier Jeremy Rockliff said.

“Project Southgate will form the foundation of Australia’s artificial intelligence infrastructure and secure our place as the Asia-Pacific region’s AI hub.”

Firmus co-CEO Oliver Curtis added: “AI Factories are purpose-built to power, train, and inference artificial intelligences. With Tasmania’s clean energy and our AI Factory platform, we believe this will be the most cost-effective, sustainable AI facility in the world.”

Firmus currently operates an R&D facility in Tasmania. Founded in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield, and Jonathan Levee, the Tasmania site was originally its flagship data center. The company initially was focused on high-performance compute and specialized in immersion cooling, but today describes itself as a pure AI factory builder.

In more recent years, Firmus' AI cloud offering was repatriated to STT GDC data centers in Singapore, where it offers access to Nvidia H100 GPUs in a liquid-cooled data center via the company’s cloud platform, SMC. The SMC site says AI factories in India and Thailand are “coming soon.”

Firmus is an Nvidia partner, and earlier this month announced it had joined the GPU maker’s Lepton marketplace.

Last month, Firmus raised AU$280 million ($180m) in preparation for going public on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Google has long used seawater cooling in Finland, while Portugal's Start Campus is set to use the ocean for cooling at its Sines site. Multiple companies including Digital Realty are using river cooling.