Arabic version: انهيار الطرح الأولي لشركة فيرمَس ينهي قصة نجاح الذكاء الاصطناعي الأسترالية

According to The Guardian, Australian AI company Firmus was preparing to list with a valuation that would have placed the startup in the same league as Woolworths. Just over a week before the planned market debut, the company appeared to be an Australian business success story.

But the proposed listing collapsed last Friday. The failed float had been described as the biggest Australian Securities Exchange listing since Telstra, and investor doubt focused on the datacentre company. Questions had also been raised over a multibillion-dollar Firmus float and a datacentre backlash.

Firmus co-founder Oliver Curtis was at the centre of the fallout. Curtis, an entrepreneur seeking to rebuild his reputation after spending time in prison for insider trading, said the collapse resulted from Australia’s “mantra of disbelief around entrepreneurs”.

In the Guardian’s Full Story podcast, business editor Jonathan Barrett discusses the founders’ hubris with Matilda Boseley. Their conversation also considers what the Firmus collapse may say about the future of the AI investment bubble, after a business presented as an Australian AI “fairytale” turned into a flop.