Symbolic imageNvidia-backed Firmus has pulled its $5bn Sydney IPO and is reportedly exploring a $3bn raise instead, while the FT reports SoftBank is seeking up to $100bn from Gulf investors for its AI push.
Training and operating artificial intelligence requires data centres on a scale that outstrips what individual tech companies fund alone, so chip suppliers and financial institutions are channelling outside investor money into the buildout. Nvidia, by far the leading supplier of the chip systems these centres run on, is at the centre of the effort.
Australian data-centre operator Firmus abandoned its plan to list in Sydney, blaming "recent market volatility and prevailing market conditions", the Financial Times reports. Bloomberg reports that the Nvidia-backed company is exploring raising $3 billion after shelving the IPO.
SoftBank founder and chief executive Masayoshi Son has held talks with senior figures in the UAE in recent weeks, the Financial Times reports. According to the FT, as relayed by Reuters, the group is seeking up to $100bn from Gulf investors for its AI push.
Bloomberg reports that demand for an Nvidia-backed IPO has cratered, which it describes as a warning on AI funding. Separately, a strategist cited by Bloomberg warns that an AI bubble could trigger the worst S&P 500 crash since 2008.
TSMC reported a 51% jump in third-quarter revenue on Thursday, and Samsung said its operating profit hit a record. GlobalFoundries also announced a $2bn deal to supply TSMC.
Finland's Licensing and Supervision Authority (LVV) on Tuesday ordered the halt of environmentally significant preparatory work at Google data centre sites until environmental assessments are completed, according to Telesur. Minister Multala said all companies operating in Finland must comply with Finnish law.
SpaceX's default-insurance cost hit a record on Wednesday after a report that it seeks $40bn in debt for Nvidia chips.
Finnish authorities have demanded that Google stop work at two data centre sites by 23 October pending an environmental assessment. The demand follows the clearing of about 300 hectares of forest.
The S&P 500 reached a record high on Tuesday despite a slump in the bond market, and Bloomberg had described it as on course for its first record since August. Marvell shares rose six percent, Broadcom four percent and AMD three percent, according to Politika, after Marvell raised its 2028 revenue forecast on strong AI data center demand.
Micron's profit and revenue surged, and the memory crunch looks set to last through 2028, according to the Wall Street Journal. Foxconn's third-quarter revenue soared on AI demand and beat market forecasts, Reuters reports.
Bloomberg reports that bond investors are struggling to price roughly $70bn of opaque credit guarantees behind AI companies. Such backstops make up a growing share of the debt financing the data-centre boom.
Bloomberg reports that a gas pipeline for a proposed Oracle data centre has been delayed to 2027, that EdgeConneX is seeking a $2.5 billion bank pledge for power, and that Fermi has received a US subpoena tied to Project Matador. In an opinion piece for Le Monde, Seine-Saint-Denis council president Stéphane Troussel wrote that the unplanned spread of data centres in France resembles the Wild West more than a digital El Dorado, after a building permit for a project in Le Bourget was withdrawn.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Nvidia has downsized plans to guarantee $250bn of OpenAI data-centre spending. Its wider $500bn build-out is meanwhile drawing Wall Street deeper into the AI trade.
Bloomberg reports that a Jane Street lease is backing $2.25 billion of green data-centre bonds, that Microsoft has cut its purchases of carbon removals by 80 percent amid its AI push, and that parts of Texas are cooling on new sites. The Wall Street Journal reports that Rick Perry's Fermi has found a customer for its Texas power project, while Meta said on Wednesday it had entered a national partnership with North America's Building Trades Unions tying its data-centre construction to unionised labour.
Bank of America will deploy $250bn into AI and energy infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Results from Cisco, Foxconn and Tencent showed the spending's reach and cost.
Nvidia and six Wall Street firms are assembling at least $500bn for AI data centres. Insurers and power forecasters are testing what the buildout can carry.
Nvidia and Wall Street firms are assembling at least $500bn for AI infrastructure. The push was announced on Monday, alongside further data-centre deals.