Australian neocloud Firmus has secured $10 billion in a debt financing facility led by investment firms Blackstone and Coatue.

Firmus said the financing would fund the rollout of its AI factory platform, which is based on the Nvidia DSX reference architecture, across Australia. This is part of Firmus’ Project Southgate, a strategic partnership with CDC Data Centres and Nvidia.

In its announcement, the neocloud said this transaction is one of the “largest private debt financings in Australian history.”

“The picks and shovels powering the AI revolution are one of our highest conviction investment themes, and we are excited to finance Firmus’ continued growth,” said John Watson, a senior managing director in Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities Group. “AI is driving one of the most significant infrastructure build-outs in decades, and we believe Australia can play a central role in that transformation.”

Oliver Curtis, co-CEO of Firmus, added: “This milestone reflects the trajectory of Australia as a global player in powering AI. With Blackstone and Coatue’s financing, we’re helping meet the rising global demand for AI compute. On the ground, we’re focused on rapidly scaling our energy-efficient AI Factories to meet demand and create lasting value for both our customers and the broader local economy.”

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.

Just a month later, Firmus announced a planned expansion into mainland Australia in partnership with CDC Data Centres under the Project Southgate moniker, which it began publicly terming as a wider initiative. The company said this partnership would extend its capacity to 1.6GW, and announced additional deployments in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, and Perth.

In November last year, the neocloud said it had raised AU$500m ($351 million) for Project Southgate.

In its latest announcement, Firmus said that multiple “AI factories” are under construction across multiple Australian sites with “thousands of GPUs planned for deployment.”

“Project Southgate is expected to scale up to 1.6GW of infrastructure through 2028,” the company said.

“Each factory is purpose-built for energy efficiency and token production to meet the infrastructure needs of the world’s most demanding AI customers. Australia’s competitive energy profile, skilled workforce, and export-ready infrastructure make it ideal for world-class AI factories.”

Firmus was founded in 2019 and initially focused on cryptocurrency and high-performance compute, with specialization in immersion cooling. It now describes itself as an AI factory builder, with backing from Nvidia.