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# Firmus lands OpenAI as Malaysia's AI buildout accelerates
- URL: https://www.techstories.co/firmus-lands-openai-as-malaysias-ai-buildout-accelerates/
- Published: 2026-09-08T10:42:30.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-12T18:03:48.000Z
- Description: A multi-year deal for capacity at two Malaysian data centres.
- Author: Paul Mah
- Tags: Data Centres, AI

Firmus and OpenAI today [announced](https://firmus.co/newsroom/firmus-surpasses-900-mw-contracted-capacity-adds-openai-as-anchor-customer-and-expands-into-malaysia?ref=techstories.co) a partnership that will see OpenAI contract AI capacity from two Firmus data centres in Malaysia. Here's what we know so far.

### From Bitcoin to AI

Firmus started as a [Bitcoin mining operation](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/08/09/former-bitcoin-miner-firmus-became-a-105b-ai-infrastructure-company/?ref=techstories.co) in the Australian state of Tasmania in 2019\. Along the way, the firm developed a proprietary immersion-cooling technology for its own use.

That technology was subsequently put to work in [Sustainable Metal Cloud](https://smc.co/?ref=techstories.co) (SMC), its AI GPU cloud platform operated in partnership with STT GDC. SMC currently runs a Singapore cloud region spanning two data centres.

I visited STT GDC's STT Singapore 6 data centre in 2024 at the invitation of co-CEO Tim Rosenfield, where I saw its unique immersion-cooling system, which uses interconnected tanks powered by just one pump. I wrote about that visit in an earlier Tech Stories article.

### What was announced

According to today's announcement, the partnership is a multi-year agreement under which OpenAI will acquire dedicated AI compute capacity from two Firmus sites in Malaysia.

With OpenAI factored in, Firmus says its total contracted capacity across all customers now stands at more than 900MW, though the release doesn't say how much of that belongs to OpenAI.

The company adds that it has five AI data centres under development across Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia, and that they will be ready for service over the next 24 months.

### The tech, and the race

The release is short on details. It does say, however, that the data centres under the partnership will deploy Vera Rubin NVL72 systems together with Firmus' HyperCube platform, with the latter manufactured and prefabricated in regional New South Wales.

Nvidia's Vera Rubin is currently in production and shipping to major cloud and infrastructure players. It is not yet broadly available to all customers, though, which could offer a hint of the deployment timelines involved.

I haven't personally seen the HyperCube either. It isn't the immersion system I saw in Singapore. Instead, this is direct-to-chip technology, and as I understand it, implemented using Firmus' proprietary mechanical and electrification systems.

The race to build AI data centres in the region is heating up. Just a week ago, I was at the topping-out ceremony of Racks Central's first AI data centre in Johor, which I covered in a separate article. And according to projections from JLL, Malaysia is on track to have the highest data centre capacity of any APAC market outside China by around 2029.