Firmus Grid Ltd.'s expected postponement of its up to $5.5 billion Australian IPO has cast a shadow over other pending data center listings, following a trend of weak debuts for AI infrastructure firms. Investor concerns over an aggressive pricing strategy and rising US Treasury yields have contributed to the delay, with Firmus now considering private fundraising instead. The setback comes as several AI-focused companies, including Nscale Ltd. and SB Energy Inc., have filed for US listings but delayed marketing due to SEC rules requiring a 15-day wait after filing.
Day One Data Centers Ltd. filed this week and can begin pitching investors on October 21. Analysts note that while these 'neocloud' firms can deploy compute faster than traditional providers, they trade at high sales multiples and rely on debt financing. The Roundhill Neocloud ETF, holding Nebius, CoreWeave and IREN, fell 7.2% recently.
Despite poor performance by some recent data center IPOs like Csquare and Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust, Bloomberg Intelligence forecasts generative AI spending to reach $2.3 trillion by 2032, sustaining long-term demand for data center power.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing