Oliver Curtis is seeking $10 billion in financing for Nvidia chips as his company Firmus prepares for an Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listing, while Nvidia faces scrutiny over a $100 billion guarantee for OpenAI’s Ohio data center. The deals highlight the financial risks and ambitions driving the AI infrastructure boom.
The Australian artificial intelligence infrastructure company Firmus Technologies, co-founded by Oliver Curtis, is in talks with lenders for roughly $10 billion in financing to purchase Nvidia chips for an Indonesian data center, according to Bloomberg. This package would include $7.5 billion in debt and $2.5 billion in equity, with a five-year term. The financing supports a $30 billion deal with Nvidia to build a 360-megawatt Nvidia DSX “AI factory” in Batam, Indonesia, a project poised to become one of Asia’s largest AI infrastructure deals.
Nvidia’s Ohio Data Center Guarantee
Nvidia is reportedly providing a financial guarantee of around 100 Milliarden Dollar for OpenAI’s Ohio data center, a project that would cost 500 Milliarden US-Dollar overall, according to reports. The chipmaker initially aimed for a 250 Milliarden Dollar guarantee, but the figure was later reduced, as per The Wall Street Journal and The Information. The Ohio facility, developed by SoftBank’s SB Energy, would be OpenAI’s first directly leased data center, shifting from reliance on cloud providers like Microsoft and Amazon. Nvidia’s guarantee, which covers at most 25 percent of the financing, is designed to secure cheaper loans by mitigating risk for lenders.
The project involves ten Gigawatt capacity, with the first phase targeting 4,25 Gigawatt. Nvidia’s financial backing would cover parts of the lease and energy payments, with the maximum liability capped at 105 Milliarden US-Dollar for the initial phase. The data center is scheduled to begin operations between 2028 and 2032, creating 35.000 Arbeitsplätzen and 2.500 dauerhaften Stellen. OpenAI has already committed to insgesamt rund zwölf Gigawatt Nvidia-Rechenleistung, with potential expansion to rund 16 Gigawatt if the partnership deepens.
Oliver Curtis’s $10 Billion Chip Deal
Curtis, who founded Firmus in 2019, is leveraging the financing to build a network of seven AI data centers across Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia within two years. The company’s most advanced site is at St Leonards near Launceston, with additional approvals sought in Long Reach and Wesley Vale. Firmus is preparing for an initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange, aiming for a $7 billion at a target valuation of around $50 billion—surpassing Canva’s. The deal with Nvidia includes a US$30 billion (A$43 billion) contract to build a 360-megawatt Nvidia DSX “AI factory” in Batam, Indonesia.
Firmus’s financing plan includes $7.5 billion of debt across senior and mezzanine tranches, alongside roughly $2.5 billion of equity. The company’s growth reflects the broader trend of AI infrastructure investments, with firms like Nvidia and SoftBank betting big on data centers to power next-generation AI models. However, the scale of these deals has raised concerns about financial risks, particularly as investors question whether the demand for AI computing will justify such massive expenditures.
Market Reactions and Financial Risks
Nvidia’s involvement in both OpenAI’s Ohio project and Firmus’s Indonesian data center underscores its role as a financial backer and supplier. However, the company’s growing exposure has sparked investor anxiety. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia’s expanded financing commitments, including a separate package for chip purchases of up to 350 Milliarden US-Dollar, have raised fears of circular financing models that could increase the risk of a bubble.
Investors are particularly wary of the interplay between AI infrastructure investments and chip sales. For every data center built, Nvidia stands to profit from hardware sales, creating a feedback loop that could distort market signals. Michael Burry, the investor known for predicting the 2008 housing crisis, has warned of structural imbalances in the AI sector, citing the risk of overbuilding capacity that outpaces actual demand.
The success of these deals will hinge on several factors: whether OpenAI and Firmus can deliver on their technical and financial promises, how quickly AI adoption drives demand for computing power, and whether regulators intervene to address potential market bubbles. For Nvidia, the Ohio and Batam projects represent a bet on sustained AI growth, but the scale of their financial commitments could backfire if the sector fails to meet expectations.
For Oliver Curtis and Firmus, the ASX listing could mark a turning point, but the $10 billion financing underscores the high-stakes nature of AI infrastructure. As these projects move forward, they will serve as a test case for whether the current boom in AI investments is grounded in real demand or fueled by speculative optimism.