{"id":670758,"date":"2026-05-14T16:42:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/670758\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T16:42:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:42:24","slug":"firmus-quietly-scrubs-un-logo-ahead-of-12-billion-ipo-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/670758\/","title":{"rendered":"Firmus quietly scrubs UN logo ahead of $12 billion IPO push"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The United Nations has forced Firmus to remove its emblem from every page of the AI infrastructure unicorn\u2019s website, in a blow to its marketing as the buzzy pre-IPO contender chases a blockbuster ASX listing on a valuation as high as $12 billion.<\/p>\n

Firmus Technologies, the Sydney-founded, Singapore-based company co-led by convicted insider trader Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield, confirmed it received a request from the UN Global Compact to take down the full United Nations insignia from its website.<\/p>\n

The logo had appeared in the footer of the firmus.co<\/a> website for more than a year beneath the company\u2019s marketing copy about \u201cgreen AI factories\u201d and renewable-powered data centres, and its removal is the latest change to environmental claims made on the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\"FirmusFirmus Technologies co-founder Oliver Curtis.Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n

UN Global Compact participants are explicitly prohibited by law from using the actual United Nations logo, and participants must seek \u201cpermission in advance and in writing\u201d to use even the dedicated \u201cWe Support the UN Global Compact\u201d branding.<\/p>\n

Breaches can lead to delisting or legal proceedings. The Global Compact also stipulates participants should describe themselves as \u201cparticipants\u201d \u2013 never as \u201cmembers\u201d \u2013 and notes the initiative \u201cdoes not endorse or certify\u201d companies.<\/p>\n

\"Firmus\u2019Firmus\u2019 website previously featured the full United Nations insignia, which is prohibited by law.<\/p>\n

In a statement to this masthead, a UN Global Compact spokeswoman said the world body had \u201cno record of granting permission for the use of the United Nations emblem or the UN Global Compact \u2018We Support\u2019 endorsement logo on the firmus.co website or related marketing materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the UN Global Compact Logo Policy, any use of the UN Global Compact logo requires prior written authorisation, and the use of the United Nations emblem is reserved for official United Nations purposes only,\u201d the spokeswoman said. \u201cThe UN Global Compact does not endorse or certify companies, products or services through participation in the initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UN Global Compact is the world\u2019s largest corporate sustainability initiative with companies committing to aligning their operations and strategies with 10 principles around human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Companies also must submit an annual public report detailing their progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe joined the UN Compact in August 2024,\u201d a Firmus spokesperson said. \u201cIn line with their brand guidelines we recently received a request to remove the logo we were using and haven\u2019t yet updated it to the \u2018We support the UN Global Compact\u2019 logo in the brand guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

The admission confirms that for the bulk of the period in which Firmus has been courting institutional investors and building its private valuation from under $100 million to nearly $8 billion, the company was displaying a UN emblem it was never authorised to use. There have been reports it could be valued at up to $12 billion in a sharemarket listing.<\/p>\n

Since inception the company has repeatedly changed or removed environmental claims from its website, including that its data centres require 75 per cent less land than rivals, and that its assets have a carbon footprint six times smaller than traditional data centres, revisions that were first reported by Capital Brief.<\/p>\n

The decision to display the UN insignia \u2013 and then remove it \u2013 adds to a growing list of details that prospective investors and the ASX are likely to scrutinise as the prospectus inches towards lodgement. Firmus\u2019 long-awaited float is now expected late in the September quarter after the company finalises its full-year accounts to June 30.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Firmus\u2019 AI factory site in Tasmania is the start of a planned $73 billion build.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2019 by Curtis, Rosenfield and Jonathan Levee, Firmus originally pitched its liquid-cooling technology at the bitcoin mining sector. When crypto prices wilted, the company rebranded under chair Ted Pretty as an \u201cAI factory\u201d operator, offering purpose-built data centres designed to house tens of thousands of Nvidia chips. Its $73 billion \u201cProject Southgate\u201d promises a multi-city Australian rollout by 2028, anchored by a flagship facility outside Launceston.<\/p>\n

Firmus\u2019 valuation has soared in tandem with the rebrand. Worth a modest $81 million in 2024, the company has since raised more than $US1.35 billion across a string of equity rounds, including from Nvidia, Blackstone, US investor Coatue and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek. A $US10 billion debt package from Blackstone, secured in February, ranks among the largest private credit deals struck for an Australian-linked business. Joint lead managers Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Morgans are sounding institutions on an IPO expected to value the company between $8 billion and $12 billion.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"After<\/a><\/p>\n

Curtis, a former stockbroker who served 12 months at Cooma Correctional Centre after his 2016 insider trading conviction and the husband of Sydney socialite Roxy Jacenko, has told investors Firmus operates its facilities at roughly half the cost of competitors and builds them for about half the price \u2013 claims industry insiders have variously called \u201cextreme\u201d and difficult to verify. <\/p>\n

Curtis\u2019 prominent front-of-house role has also drawn scrutiny from corporate governance specialists. Under ASX guidelines, a proposed chief executive or director must satisfy a \u201cgood fame and character\u201d test that includes consideration of criminal history. The exchange last month published a more detailed guidance note pointing to the time elapsed since the offending conduct, including whether about 10 years have passed. In June, it will be a decade since Curtis was jailed.<\/p>\n

The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day\u2019s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"DavidDavid Swan<\/a> is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-670758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}