The United Nations has forced Firmus to remove its emblem from every page of the AI infrastructure unicorn’s website, in a blow to its marketing as the buzzy pre-IPO contender chases a blockbuster ASX listing on a valuation as high as $12 billion.
Firmus Technologies, the Sydney-founded, Singapore-based company co-led by convicted insider trader Oliver Curtis and Tim Rosenfield, confirmed it received a request from the UN Global Compact to take down the full United Nations insignia from its website.
The logo had appeared in the footer of the firmus.co website for more than a year beneath the company’s marketing copy about “green AI factories” and renewable-powered data centres, and its removal is the latest change to environmental claims made on the company’s website.
UN Global Compact participants are explicitly prohibited by law from using the actual United Nations logo, and participants must seek “permission in advance and in writing” to use even the dedicated “We Support the UN Global Compact” branding.
Breaches can lead to delisting or legal proceedings. The Global Compact also stipulates participants should describe themselves as “participants” – never as “members” – and notes the initiative “does not endorse or certify” companies.
In a statement to this masthead, a UN Global Compact spokeswoman said the world body had “no record of granting permission for the use of the United Nations emblem or the UN Global Compact ‘We Support’ endorsement logo on the firmus.co website or related marketing materials.”
“Under the UN Global Compact Logo Policy, any use of the UN Global Compact logo requires prior written authorisation, and the use of the United Nations emblem is reserved for official United Nations purposes only,” the spokeswoman said. “The UN Global Compact does not endorse or certify companies, products or services through participation in the initiative.”
The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative with companies committing to aligning their operations and strategies with 10 principles around human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Companies also must submit an annual public report detailing their progress.
“We joined the UN Compact in August 2024,” a Firmus spokesperson said. “In line with their brand guidelines we recently received a request to remove the logo we were using and haven’t yet updated it to the ‘We support the UN Global Compact’ logo in the brand guidelines.”
The admission confirms that for the bulk of the period in which Firmus has been courting institutional investors and building its private valuation from under $100 million to nearly $8 billion, the company was displaying a UN emblem it was never authorised to use. There have been reports it could be valued at up to $12 billion in a sharemarket listing.
Since inception the company has repeatedly changed or removed environmental claims from its website, including that its data centres require 75 per cent less land than rivals, and that its assets have a carbon footprint six times smaller than traditional data centres, revisions that were first reported by Capital Brief.
The decision to display the UN insignia – and then remove it – adds to a growing list of details that prospective investors and the ASX are likely to scrutinise as the prospectus inches towards lodgement. Firmus’ long-awaited float is now expected late in the September quarter after the company finalises its full-year accounts to June 30.
Founded in 2019 by Curtis, Rosenfield and Jonathan Levee, Firmus originally pitched its liquid-cooling technology at the bitcoin mining sector. When crypto prices wilted, the company rebranded under chair Ted Pretty as an “AI factory” operator, offering purpose-built data centres designed to house tens of thousands of Nvidia chips. Its $73 billion “Project Southgate” promises a multi-city Australian rollout by 2028, anchored by a flagship facility outside Launceston.
Firmus’ valuation has soared in tandem with the rebrand. Worth a modest $81 million in 2024, the company has since raised more than $US1.35 billion across a string of equity rounds, including from Nvidia, Blackstone, US investor Coatue and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek. A $US10 billion debt package from Blackstone, secured in February, ranks among the largest private credit deals struck for an Australian-linked business. Joint lead managers Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Morgans are sounding institutions on an IPO expected to value the company between $8 billion and $12 billion.
Curtis, a former stockbroker who served 12 months at Cooma Correctional Centre after his 2016 insider trading conviction, has told investors Firmus operates its facilities at roughly half the cost of competitors and builds them for about half the price – claims industry insiders have variously called “extreme” and difficult to verify.
Curtis’s prominent front-of-house role has also drawn scrutiny from corporate governance specialists. Under ASX guidelines, a proposed chief executive or director must satisfy a “good fame and character” test that includes consideration of criminal history. The exchange last month published a more detailed guidance note pointing to the time elapsed since the offending conduct, including whether about 10 years have passed. In June, it will be a decade since Curtis was jailed.
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David Swan is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X or email.
