Nvidia drafts in neoclouds for ‘power battle’ with hyperscalers over AI supremacy
Elite investors including Softbank and Situational Awareness are dropping billions on the likes of Australia’s IREN, Firmus and Sharon AI. But can it last?
As local investors wait with bated breath for the market debuts of Firmus and Sharon AI, the burgeoning neocloud sector is entering a purple patch in the United States.
While Wall Street has been getting behind the neocloud trade for months, and top tier American private equity firms like Blackstone, Coatue Management and Oaktree Capital Management have already put money into the aforementioned Australian duo, last week represented a watershed moment for AI industry’s booming sub-sector.
Not only did Japanese investing giant SoftBank set up a dedicated neocloud subsidiary (which one executive described as “a second founding for our company”), one of the most influential AI investors in the States showed its hand as a steadfast neocloud bull.
Situational Awareness, the AI-focused hedge fund led by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, disclosed it has jumped to the top of Sharon AI's cap table with a 19.9% position.
