Seven-year-old Firmus had aimed to go public this month at a $43.7 billion valuation, marking a dramatic redemption story for Curtis, a former resident of Cooma Correctional Centre who now owns about 13 per cent of the company and stood to see his stake worth billions. But on Thursday morning, its plans were hanging in the balance after institutional investors balked at the price in a volatile market.
According to sources reported by The Australian Financial Review, the share price adjustment could imply a drop in Curtis's paper wealth in the region of $1 billion.
Investors have grown wary of Firmus's high valuation relative to its modest revenue and aggressive expansion forecasts. The company has only two data centres in operation and reportedly recorded $50 million in revenue last year. Its target valuation was roughly 874 times that revenue figure. Meanwhile, it has rapidly escalated its valuation from $1.2 billion in late 2024 to $6 billion in November 2025, $15 billion in August this year, and then attempting to more than double again this month.
Firmus's business plan involves building many data centres globally and selling their output to AI giants like Meta. Even by the standards of the AI boom, the growth trajectory has been described as staggeringly fast.