Firmus is Biggering & Biggering – Part 3

Graphic above – Firmus Technologies – Project Southgate – investor presentation Morgans Financial Limited, August 2025.

Tasmanian Times asked Firmus 37 questions to clarify what Project Southgate actually is.

Among them were queries about the nameplate capacity of each of the three AI factories (St. Leonards, Longreach, and Wesley Vale). We asked if there were plans to build more Firmus AI factories in Tasmania and if there was any truth to the rumour that the Tasmanian government had offered them $500 million in financial support. We asked about their claims of 99 per cent less water usage and why they’re exploring using seawater for cooling in Singapore. We asked what the credit rating and interest rate of their debt to Blackstone is, and how and where they measure ambient temperature (which is when the external water switches on).

We also asked  many detailed technical questions around the chips they use and the racks they use they use and how the racks are configured. Additionally,  we asked about their Hypercubes and about energy supply from renewable energy supplies.

We  asked social questions about Firmus’ approach to Tasmania as well, and how they’re planning on gaining social license for their AI Factories.

Amid growing public discussion around Project Southgate, we offered to help clarify or correct aspects of the public record. Some of the confusion, we noted, appears to originate from inconsistent statements made by Firmus itself.

Firmus later requested an extension to our deadline (COB Wednesday), asking for additional time until Friday. We agreed to a Friday midday deadline on the condition that we could include one additional question regarding its mainland expansion plans. We followed up by phone at 9:30am on Friday to confirm whether the deadline would be met. We were told the company was working on responses and would return to us.

No response was received by the extended deadline.

It appears that several of the questions we raised relate to information already in the public domain or contained within development applications. However, in reviewing public statements over the past 12 months, there appear to be inconsistencies in Firmus’ own communications.

For example, in an Australian Financial Review article dated 8 June 2026, the company states the St. Leonards site will contain 364 racks; however, in an interview on Rampart Talks (19 March 2026), the co-CEO refers to 512 racks. At an estimated $5.3 million per rack, this represents a significant $784 million difference in projected scale, with implications for energy demand, and water usage.

As public debate around Project Southgate intensifies – including a parliamentary online petition and growing discussion around AI data centres – Firmus appears to have entered a more cautious phase of engagement. Or is this the strategy?

Ironically the two sites they have chosen for their largest AI factories (Long Reach and Wesley Vale) were ground zero in the Forestry Wars; a must-read for any company wishing to develop large projects in Tasmania.

Tasmanian Times will continue to report on the project as further information becomes available, even if details remain limited or incomplete.

We will leave today’s update with the following gem of an observation.

At the end of May, we raised questions about the data connection from Tasmania to mainland Australia because it seemed to us that the existing infrastructure created a bottleneck for Project Southgate. On 2 June 2026, Firmus and SUBCO announced an agreement “to build a new submarine fibre optic cable connecting Tasmania to mainland Australia, significantly expanding the state’s digital capacity and supporting the next generation of AI infrastructure.”

More recently, we have been watching the blow up around how much of the state’s power Project Southgate would use. While using Tasmania’s energy creates a customer for Tasmania’s economic engine (Hydro Tasmania, Aurora Energy, and Tas Networks), it also creates a bottleneck for the expansion of Project Southgate (more on this later).

The graphic at the top of the page was taken from an investor presentation done at Morgans Financial Limited office in August 2025. It clearly shows the St Leonards and Longreach sites, and also shows the 1260MW North East Wind Project (marked as 1.2GW Wind Project 2026-2030).

The North East Wind Project (NEWP) sits next to the existing Cape Portland Wind Project (75per cent owned by a Chinese state-owned entity and 25per cent owned by Hydro Tasmania) and comprises two areas (Rushy Lagoon and Waterhouse) where approximately 210 large wind turbines are planned across both areas.

NEWP is owned by the huge energy company ACEN Australia, which is a subsidiary of ACEN Corporation, which in turn is owned by Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corporation.

The feature image above shows the transmission lines from NEPW running to the St. Leonards site, when in fact the NEWP study shows transmission lines running to the Longreach site.

We expect Firmus to announce an agreement to underwrite the development of the North East Wind Project in the very near future.

The NEWP, combined with the SUBCO fibre optic cable, rounds out the future proofing of Project Southgate in energy and delivery of AI tokens into the market.

The downside for Tasmania is lost income from Hydro energy generation, transmission and firming, unless Hydro become a part owner on similar terms to the operational Cape Portland Wind Project.

Now for the water hurdle…this is where it gets really interesting!

North East Wind Project – Transmission Lines to Longreach

If you’re interested in this article, please join our mailing list. It’s all free … and we won’t share your information with anyone!

If you have any comments you’d like to add to this article, please contribute via this form. We’re trialling this while we work through replacing our comments section.

Truly independent media is a cornerstone of democracy.

Remember: once they gain power the first action of every despot in modern history is to take control of the media, so please consider supporting us.

Your kids will thank you and so will your Granny, but the aspiring despots won’t…