NextDC’s Craig Scroggie throws shade at Firmus, casts doubt on its build cost claims
During a call to discuss the ASX-listed data centre company’s own $2 billion capital raising plan, its founder hit out at the IPO hopeful’s pitch to the market.
Data centre builder NextDC’s CEO Craig Scroggie has questioned whether AI factory hopeful Firmus can build "fit for purpose" facilities at its claimed cost projections and compared the company’s proposed data centres to a Bunnings Warehouse store.
During an investor call to discuss a $2.2 billion capital raise to accelerate its own data centre build out, Scroggie said Firmus and NextDC are “fundamentally different businesses” but expressed doubt over whether the IPO hopeful, which has yet to build its own data centre, can deliver on its cost claims.
“So, we have been building data centres and delivering them successfully for a decade and a half,” in response to a question from MST Marquee analyst Fraser McLeish. “If I’ve never built one on scale, and I tell you it costs $6 million to build it, I guess we’ll see whether it can be built for that or not, and it’s fit for purpose.”
Firmus’ pre-IPO presentation currently claims it can build a data centre at a cost of USD6 million ($8.4 million) per megawatt, according to The Australian.
