From Bloomberg, April 6:
Data center builder Firmus Technologies Pty raised $505 million in an investment round led by Coatue Management LLC, part of a global push to finance artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The deal values the Australian startup at $5.5 billion, Firmus said Monday. Nvidia Corp., the top maker of AI accelerator chips, also participated in the round.
The cash will go toward rapidly deploying AI hardware based on forthcoming Nvidia computer technology in the Asia-Pacific region. Firmus, which has data center projects in Australia and Singapore, has raised $1.35 billion in the last six months, including this latest transaction.
Firmus is leading an effort called Southgate, a plan to build data center capacity in Australia that runs on renewable energy, starting with a site in Tasmania. That facility will house computers based on 36,000 Nvidia accelerator chips after its first two rounds of technology deployments. The powerful processors help develop and run AI models by bombarding them with data.
Nvidia, often in partnership with venture capital investors, has invested billions of dollars in AI companies. It’s aiming to help cultivate an industry that has already fueled explosive sales growth and turned Nvidia into the world’s most valuable business.
As with the Firmus funding, Nvidia is backing companies that also buy its products. Some investors have expressed concern about the circular nature of these deals, something Nvidia has pushed back on.
Read More: A Guide to the Circular Deals Underpinning the AI Boom
Coatue, which has more than $70 billion in assets under management, has made its own push into AI technology. The New York-based investment firm has backed computing infrastructure as well as service providers like OpenAI and Anthropic PBC....
....MORE (sovereign AI)
If interested see also:
December 2023 - Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says AI to See ‘Major Second Wave (NVDA)
AI to See ‘Major Second Wave,’ NVIDIA CEO Says in Fireside Chat With iliad Group Exec
NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang says sovereign AI a growing need for countries to reflect unique cultural, linguistic, industrial characteristics
European startups will get a massive boost from a new generation of AI infrastructure, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang said Friday in a fireside chat with iliad Group Deputy CEO Aude Durand — and it’s coming just in time.
February 2024 - "Nvidia chief sees rise of ‘sovereign AI’ infrastructure across nations, driving demand for company’s advanced chips"
This is the sort of thing we were referring to in January 20's "Advanced Micro Devices to Build 2 New Supercomputers in Germany (AMD)": "Taking a page out of Nvidia's playbook."
Nvidia wants every language to have its own large language model. And they want every country to have an Nvidia powered supercomputer (or five) to train and run the LLM on....
....Bi-lingual Canada is good but multi-lingual India is Mr. Huang's dream country.
PM Modi's people should ask for two free supercomputers upfront as part of a five 'puter order.
And side dishes. Maybe a billion dollars worth of gaming chips.
March 2024 - Here's Nvidia's "Sovereign AI" Pitch (NVDA)
*****
....This is terrible. I now have Jensen Huang speaking in Dr. Martin Luther King's cadences as he repurposes the penultimate paragraph of "I have a Dream":
Let AI ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let AI ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let AI ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let AI ring.I may have to go lie down.
...Every, town, every village, every hamlet, every wide spot in the road, should have their own (NVDA-powered) supercomputer.
June 16, 2024
France's "Mistral AI warns of lack of data centres and training capacity in Europe"
October 4, 2024
"Parlez-vous AI? Francophone scholars warn against English language dominating AI"
Singapore: "Chinese Group Accused of Hacking Singtel in Telecom Attacks"
....Our last couple mentions of Singtel were in reference to Nvidia's roll-out of the Blackwell chip for their sovereign AI program:
December 2024 - Canada commits $1.4B to sovereign compute infrastructure as it joins the AI arms race
January 2025 - "Jensen Huang Wants to Make AI the New World Infrastructure" (NVDA)
This sovereign AI you speak of, I have heard of it.
I have heard wondrous tales of immense wealth,
Of amazing deeds performed as if by magic.
Yes I have heard of all of this...*
And many more.
