Observed Signal · Apr 7, 2026 · Funding · Source: techcrunch · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Firmus Raises $505M, Reaches $5.5B Valuation
Singapore-based data-center provider Firmus announced a $505 million funding round led by Coatue at a $5.5 billion post-money valuation. The company says it has raised $1.35 billion in the past six months. Firmus is building an energy-efficient AI data center network called Project Southgate across Australia and Tasmania, using Nvidia reference designs and planning to deploy Nvidia’s next-gen Vera Rubin platform (successor to Blackwell), expected to ship in H2 2026. The firm originally supplied cooling technologies for Bitcoin mining and has pivoted from crypto-related infrastructure into AI-focused data centers, attracting investor interest including prior backing from Nvidia.
Large capital raise and Nvidia involvement signal accelerating investment in AI-specific data center capacity in the Asia-Pacific region; could affect regional compute supply and energy-efficient AI infrastructure availability for model builders.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Firmus raised $505 million in a financing round led by Coatue.
- Post-money valuation reported at $5.5 billion.
- Firmus says it has raised $1.35 billion in six months.
- Previous raise included AU$330 million with Nvidia among investors.
- Firmus is developing 'Project Southgate', an energy-efficient AI data center network in Australia and Tasmania using Nvidia reference designs and the Vera Rubin platform.
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Nvidia backs Vast Data at $30B valuation
Vast Data announced a $1 billion Series F funding round that values the AI-focused data-infrastructure company at $30 billion. The round was led by Drive Capital and Access Industries, with participation from Nvidia, Fidelity Management and Research Co. and NEA; it included both primary and secondary capital. Founded in 2016, Vast builds software for managing very large datasets for AI workloads and says it supports projects powering millions of GPUs. Customers named in the report include CoreWeave, Mistral, the U.S. Air Force and Cursor. Vast reported more than $4 billion in cumulative bookings and exited the prior fiscal year with over $500 million in committed annual recurring revenue. The new valuation more than triples the company’s $9.1 billion valuation from its 2023 raise. Dealroom data cited in the article notes record global AI funding this year.
Nvidia, Wall Street Firms Target $500B AI Infrastructure Fund
On August 10 NVIDIA said it is working with Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Blackstone, KKR, Apollo and Brookfield to create independent financing platforms intended to mobilize more than $500 billion of third‑party capital over time for AI infrastructure. The parties have signed memoranda of understanding, not binding commitments, and final agreements, committed amounts, financing terms, guarantees and first‑loss provisions remain unspecified. The plan would finance GPU purchases, build out power‑hungry AI data centers and secure long‑term electricity capacity, potentially treating GPU‑dense facilities as long‑lived infrastructure. Proposed structures could let NVIDIA backstop roughly 25% of loans and require standardized NVIDIA system architectures. Supporters say this will broaden access to scarce compute, but the move raises questions about asset lives, securitization, market concentration and NVIDIA’s rising exposure amid broad industry debate.
SiFive Raises $400M, Valued at $3.65B Backed by Nvidia
SiFive, founded in 2015 by UC Berkeley engineers behind an open-source chip design, closed an oversubscribed $400 million funding round that values the company at $3.65 billion. The round was led by Atreides Management (founded by Gavin Baker) and included investors such as Nvidia, Apollo Global Management, D1 Capital Partners, Point72 Turion, T. Rowe Price, and Sutter Hill Ventures. SiFive licenses RISC-V CPU designs rather than manufacturing chips and is positioning those open designs for CPUs in AI data centers; its designs are intended to interoperate with Nvidia's CUDA software and NVLink Fusion rack systems. The company previously raised $175 million in March 2022 led by Coatue Management at a $2.33 billion pre-money valuation.
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