A firestorm of anti-AI data centre sentiment erupts in the community and suddenly every Tasmanian has something to say about Firmus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company hits hitch after hitch as it races to get its three Tasmanian projects up and running to cash in on the AI boom.<\/p>\n
Firmus pulls blockbuster float<\/a><\/p>\n Firmus searches for private funding as it withdraws its application to list on the ASX just a day after closing its books to investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Come September and Firmus is a sponsor of not one, but three sporting bodies in Tasmania \u2014 the fabled Tasmania Devils AFL club<\/a>, the JackJumpers and Jewels basketball teams, and Cricket Tasmania. Many see it as an attempt to build a social licence.<\/p>\n Despite these efforts, EMRS polling<\/a> conducted in September found the majority of Tasmanians aren’t keen on AI data centres setting up shop in the state. Women and younger people are leading the push against them.<\/p>\n Regardless of these sentiments, AI data centres are needed to power tools like ChatGPT and Claude which Australians are increasingly taking up.<\/a><\/p>\n Firmus claims its facilities can produce AI tokens much cheaper than its competitors, and its innovative cooling technology means they won’t use much water.<\/p>\n But Firmus hasn’t established much of a track record yet. It only has one operational AI data centre in Australia, which is in Melbourne.<\/p>\n About 80 people gathered ahead of the George Town Council meeting, urging councillors to vote Firmus’s proposal down. (ABC News: Emily Smith)<\/p>\n The company wants 444 megawatts to power its three Tasmanian facilities, which would make it the state’s biggest power user. We don’t yet know where all that power will come from.<\/p>\n It seems investors, like Tasmanian communities, aren’t yet convinced by what Firmus is selling.\u00a0<\/p>\n What was meant to be the biggest initial public offering since Telstra \u00a0\u2014 aiming to raise $7 billion to fund its AI data centre rollout \u2014 has been cancelled, with the company saying it will look to raise funds privately instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tasmanian projects keep running into trouble<\/p>\n When neighbouring communities found out about Firmus’s Bell Bay project, they were furious at what they saw as a lack of community consultation.<\/p>\n Firmus responded to the backlash by hosting community drop-in sessions and fronting the media to address questions<\/a>, but trust was already low.<\/p>\n Firmus co-CEOs Tim Rosenfield and Oliver Curtis fronted the media to address community concerns. (ABC News: Morgan Timms)<\/p>\n The local council, George Town, ended up approving<\/a> the data centre \u2014 it didn’t see how it could say no under the planning laws.<\/a><\/p>\n It was a win for Firmus, but the company still appealed<\/a>. It wasn’t happy with a condition imposed by the council that would limit its use of backup diesel generators to during power failures, emergencies, maintenance and testing.<\/p>\n That caught the Environment Protection Authority by surprise. It’s made a submission to the appeal saying it had understood the generators would only be used very infrequently, and had it known otherwise, it would have assessed the application differently.<\/a><\/p>\n A render showing what the Bell Bay Firmus project could look like. (Supplied)<\/p>\n Firmus’s other new Tasmanian proposal, at Wesley Vale in the north-west, has faced even bigger hurdles.<\/p>\n The company accidentally revealed it wanted to use farmers’ irrigation water to cool the facility<\/a> \u2014 something state-owned Tasmanian Irrigation said it wasn’t legally able to do. While Firmus only wanted a small amount of water, farmers were annoyed the company didn’t talk to them about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the end, Firmus said it would just use rainwater and water it trucks in<\/a>. But the problems weren’t over yet.<\/p>\n The local council, Latrobe, decided it didn’t want to determine the project’s fate.<\/a> It says the planning laws aren’t up to scratch to make a decision on projects of this scale. Instead, it would rather the state government assess it as a major project, where broader questions, such as Firmus’ monumental energy needs for the three projects, can be considered.<\/p>\n The project attracted more attention last month when Latrobe Council said Firmus may have started development work at Wesley Vale without approval.<\/a><\/p>\n Firmus says it was simply doing site maintenance permitted under its forest practices plan. Nonetheless, it’s agreed to pause work while the council investigates \u2014 a process that remains ongoing.<\/p>\n Latrobe Council is investigating the work at Firmus’s Wesley Vale site. (Supplied: Erin Woodcock)<\/p>\n Firmus’s most progressed Tasmanian facility in Launceston is also tracking behind schedule. It was initially slated to be operational in the first half of this year<\/a>, but that’s been delayed to early 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n A government document states Aboriginal relics were found at the site, and construction was paused while Firmus sought approval to relocate them.<\/p>\n Amidst last week’s chaos with the initial public offering, Firmus pulled out of its scheduled Thursday appearance at a federal parliament AI inquiry taking place in Melbourne.<\/p>\n A detail in Firmus’s submission to the inquiry raised eyebrows. The company has publicised its commitment to underwrite double the amount of renewable energy that it uses, and has implied that would be in Tasmania. But its inquiry submission states the new developments could be interstate.<\/a><\/p>\n Government committed to Firmus through it all<\/p>\n The Tasmanian government has been all aboard with Firmus since the beginning.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Anti-data](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/af0d1830d2012bc5ef7e61b62e3cb1eb.jpeg\")
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