Former West Coast Eagles teammates Michael Gardiner and Ben Cousins take punt on AI data centre darling Firmus

Former West Coast Eagles stars Ben Cousins and Michael Gardiner are taking a punt on artificial intelligence with investments in Australian AI data centre darling Firmus Technologies. Gardiner revealed he is backing the $5.5 billion business, founded by cousins Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield, which is positioning Australia as a global hub for high-density, energy-efficient AI factories. Former club captain Ben Cousins is also believed to have jumped on board, The Australian reports, but is yet to confirm his involvement. Gardiner — who was the Eagles’ No.1 draft pick in 1996 and went on to play 129 games for the club, including many seasons with Cousins — told the newspaper his stake in Firmus was only small. “I’m involved with it. I’m excited I suppose by the upcoming listing and by the future of the company really,” he said. “I deal a little bit in that space with data centres. I sell land for development, so it is an area I have a little bit of knowledge in and I think everyday people just look at it and go ‘data centres, AI we are all using it and it is only going to get bigger and bigger’.” Cousins and Gardiner were mates during their time at the club, which for both was tainted by off-field controversies. Gardiner played just three games in 2006 before his contract was suspended following a car accident in Scarborough. He was later picked up by St Kilda and played more than 50 games. He joined Colliers Residential Victoria in 2018. As a manager within the development site sales team, he specialises in selling large parcels of land for subdivision and redevelopment in Melbourne’s growth corridors. Firmus — which had its roots in cooling technology for Bitcoin mining before pivoting to AI infrastructure — already has the backing of US chip giant Nvidia as a supplier and cornerstone investor. Its Australian effort dovetails with a push by Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang into so-called “sovereign AI” — the building of local data centres that allow countries and companies to keep their information within national boundaries. Mr Huang has touted that as a key area of growth for the California-based company. Firmus flagship Southgate development project includes a $2.1b site in Launceston which will house computers based on 36,000 Nvidia accelerator chips. It has ambitious plans to expand into a 1.6-gigawatt network that runs on renewable energy across Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Perth by 2028. It is reportedly planning a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange after raising $505 million earlier this week. The cash will go toward rapidly deploying AI hardware based on forthcoming Nvidia computer technology in the Asia-Pacific region. Firmus, which also has projects Singapore, has raised $US1.35 billion in the past six months, including this latest transaction. In February, it secured a $US10b debt financing facility through global private investment manager Blackstone and New York-based technology infrastructure investor Coatue, which also backs OpenAI and Anthropic. The deal was one of the largest private debt financings in Australian history. “This milestone reflects the trajectory of Australia as a global player in powering AI,” Mr Curtis said at the time. “With Blackstone and Coatue’s financing, we’re helping meet the rising global demand for AI compute. On the ground, we’re focused on rapidly scaling our energy-efficient AI Factories to meet demand and create lasting value for both our customers and the broader local economy.” Former high-ranking Fortescue executive Julie Shuttleworth last month joined the board as a non-executive director and chair of the remuneration and nomination committee, along with Block’s global financial operations boss Le Hatton and Christine Bartlett, who held senior executive roles at IBM, National Australia Bank and Jones Lang LaSalle.