Firmus expects a $77 million after-tax loss in the first half of the financial year ending June 30, 2027, on a pro forma basis, as the Australian data centre operator prepares a potential $5 billion initial public offering. The company, founded in 2019 and historically loss-making, is backed by investors including Blackstone and counts Nvidia, Meta and OpenAI among its customers. Its shares are due to begin trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on October 22. The offering would rank as Australia’s second-largest IPO, behind Telstra’s $10 billion listing in 1997, based on Dealogic data. Local media reports have said Firmus could be valued at up to $60 billion after the IPO. The sale will test investor appetite for companies developing infrastructure to support the computing demand associated with artificial intelligence. Firmus plans to use the proceeds for further capital spending, while the company estimates its completed data centres could generate combined annual earnings of $5 billion within five years. Firmus currently operates two data centres in Australia and Singapore, with five more under development across the Asia-Pacific region. An institutional bookbuild is scheduled to begin on October 6, followed by publication of the prospectus on October 8.