“A series of data center IPO withdrawals from Australia triggered a sharp decline in AI infrastructure stocks.”

FT, as the bubble clears, the value of companies with confirmed long-term contracts is highlighted.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Seonghan Lee = The Financial Times (FT) reported on the 18th (local time) that the recent plunge in the stock prices of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure companies was caused by large Australian data center companies giving up on initial public offerings (IPOs) one after another.

Permus, a data center operator that launched an IPO with the support of NVIDIA and Blackstone, boasting a corporate value of 44 billion Australian dollars (about 41 trillion won), the second largest in Australian history, suddenly withdrew its IPO plan on the 10th.

Airtrunk, another Australian data center operator, also canceled its plan to list Singapore REITs due to worsening market conditions.

Market experts believe that this is due to unreasonable corporate valuation and excessive borrowing plans.

The corporate value proposed by Permus is twice as high as the investment round three months ago.

In addition, Firmus planned to issue up to an additional $30 billion in bonds after listing, which became a decisive factor in investors turning their backs on the company.

Mike Intrater, CEO of Coreweave, a leading neocloud company in the U.S., wrote in a memo, "The failure to raise funds by Firmas, Airtrunk, and Lambda Labs is spreading into a negative perception of our company. These companies attempted to raise enormous amounts of capital, ignoring their execution capabilities, sales, and scale."

The Australian government, which has been promoting the Australian government as the best place for data center investment for AI companies such as OpenAI and Antropic due to its low political variables and renewable energy potential, has been greatly hurt by this incident.

The newspaper also introduced a cautious view that, although a short-term shock to the market is inevitable, the overall data center industry in Australia has not collapsed.

Firmus plans to raise funds through private capital markets such as private equity funds instead of the public offering market, and Sharon AI, a Nasdaq-listed company, plans to press ahead with secondary listing on the Australian stock market even though its stock price has fallen nearly 20% in a week.

The FT said, “Some investors see the current correction as an opportunity to invest in real gems with guaranteed sales in the AI ​​and data center ecosystem,” and analyzed that as the market bubble clears, the value of construction, infrastructure, and engineering companies with confirmed long-term contracts will be highlighted.

Junbei Liu, founder and senior portfolio manager at investment firm TenCap, said, “The market environment will become harsher in the future for speculative investors seeking to make a fortune without thorough analysis.”