en.Wedoany.com Reported - Firmus is planning to advance more data center development projects in Tasmania, Australia, having submitted an application to the George Town Council for the Bell Bay campus development, while also evaluating another site in Wesley Vale.
The company lists the George Town project as "GEE01" and "Long Reach Data Center" on its website, planning to build an "AI factory" on Lot 1 of East Tamar Highway—the former Gunns pulp mill site. The project will include two dedicated AI data hall buildings, an office building, and a maintenance workshop, all located on an existing cleared industrial platform. The site is expected to consume approximately 288MW of power, utilizing chip direct liquid cooling technology, with three existing 220kV high-voltage transmission lines crossing the site, operated by TasNetworks. The land was originally reserved for the Gunns pulp mill project, which was first approved in 2007 with an investment of AUD 2 billion (approximately USD 1.4 billion), but ultimately failed to materialize; forestry company Gunns was liquidated in 2013, and its assets were acquired by New Forests.
Firmus has not yet disclosed specific plans for Wesley Vale, stating that as part of its long-term growth strategy, it will continue to evaluate potential sites in Tasmania, including the George Town and Wesley Vale areas. Firmus's Project Southgate is a long-term initiative aimed at designing and deploying sovereign computing facilities for AI training and inference in Australia, with a target of deploying 1.6GW capacity by 2028.
Founded in 2019, Firmus initially focused on cryptocurrency and high-performance computing, specializing in immersion cooling, and has since transitioned into a pure AI factory builder. The company uses its proprietary electrical and cooling system, HyperCube, claiming that this liquid cooling system is more efficient than traditional air-cooled systems. Backed by Nvidia, Firmus already has a small existing facility in Tasmania and is developing a 90MW data center in Launceston as part of Project Southgate; the project is reportedly scalable to nearly 400MW. The company has also previously outlined plans to build a greenfield AI factory campus in Tasmania, which would house approximately 36,800 Nvidia GB300 GPUs, with operations targeted to begin by the end of 2026.
Through its SMC Cloud division, Firmus has deployed immersion-cooled GPUs in STT Global Data Centers (STT GDC) facilities in Singapore. The company is collaborating with Canberra Data Centers (CDC) to expand capacity on the Australian mainland and has listed Project Southgate sites on the mainland: Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, and Perth. The company plans to start this year with 18,500 Nvidia GB300 GPUs deployed in Melbourne. Firmus is also funding a submarine cable connecting Tasmania to the Australian mainland.
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