AI Computing Power Sector Lands Another Big Deal! Firmus and OpenAI Sign Multi-Year Data Center Capacity Agreement in Malaysia

According to information from Zhihu Finance APP, on Tuesday, Australian data center constructor Firmus announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with artificial intelligence (AI) giant OpenAI to provide computing power from its two data centers in Malaysia to OpenAI, making the ChatGPT developer its anchor customer. The two parties did not disclose the specific financial terms of the agreement.

As demand for infrastructure to run advanced AI models surges, the importance of data center computing capacity continues to grow. Following its agreement with OpenAI, Firmus has increased its total contracted computing capacity for all customers to over 900 megawatts (MW).

Traditionally, the AI computing power market has been dominated by tech giants with abundant capital and scale advantages, enabling them to secure state-of-the-art GPU resources at lower unit costs. Firmus' business model seeks to offer NVIDIA's top-tier computing power to small and medium-sized AI developers in a more flexible manner, through large-scale infrastructure deployment and a revenue-sharing mechanism.

Firmus' asset portfolio includes two AI data centers already in operation in Australia and Singapore, plus five additional data centers under development across the Asia-Pacific region. Firmus will deploy NVIDIA's next-generation Vera Rubin processors at scale throughout the Asia-Pacific, with the new Malaysian market further expanding its regional footprint. Malaysia has already become the fastest-growing data center market in Southeast Asia, though the rapid pace of data center construction has prompted external scrutiny over electricity and water usage.

The agreement comes as market rumors suggest Firmus is planning to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) this year, which could become one of the largest IPOs in Australia in recent years. In its most recent funding round, the AI infrastructure company was valued at over $10.5 billion, with NVIDIA (NVDA.US), Jane Street, funds under Blackstone (BX.US), and Coatue Management among the investors.

In addition, this June, Firmus announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with NVIDIA aimed at providing more cost-effective high-performance computing resources to emerging AI companies. Under the agreement, Firmus will purchase NVIDIA infrastructure and sell cloud services based on NVIDIA technology to clients such as "AI Native." In return, NVIDIA will receive product revenue as well as a share of cloud service revenues.

According to the agreement, from the first quarter of 2027 to early 2028, NVIDIA will deliver 170,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) to a facility in Batam Island, Indonesia. Firmus expects that, based on current customer purchase commitments, the collaborative project could generate as much as $25 billion to $30 billion in revenue in the first six years.