Firmus tells inquiry its AI factories could add $46b by 2035

Pulse reports he put the company’s total contribution to gross state product at “up to $46 billion” through 2035. He also said the preliminary modelling showed about 8,900 ongoing full-time equivalent jobs by 2035. These are Firmus’s own preliminary numbers.

Rosenfield argued that most data centre companies talk only about construction jobs, whereas Firmus runs its own facilities, which he said need skills and an onsite presence. He added that the company needs more people outside its data centres than inside them.

The numbers

Pulse says Firmus was founded in Launceston in 2019. Its sites are St Leonards (under construction), Wesley Vale (planned) and Bell Bay, where a 288 MW facility is approved.

Rosenfield told the committee Firmus has retrained former northern smelter workers with electrical and mechanical tickets. About 40 staff work away from its sites, he said, among them coders in Hobart and Launceston. He also cited a mainland subsea cable Firmus is funding with partner Subco, which he expects to lift connectivity markedly.

Business, Industry and Resources Minister Felix Ellis told the inquiry that Firmus’s planned $2.7 billion investment is the largest private technology investment ever seen in Tasmania, and a major injection into the construction sector.

Not everyone at the hearing was as bullish on jobs. TasICT chief executive Russell Kelly said a data centre creates jobs during construction but far fewer once operating, and that the number of jobs is quite limited compared with an aluminium smelter. He said the state’s technology workforce is forecast to grow only from 10,800 to 11,500 over the next decade.

What’s next

Asked about the company shelving its planned share market float last month, Rosenfield said shareholders including Nvidia remain extremely supportive and that the decision does not change Firmus’s growth plans. Our earlier coverage of the scrapped float and Bell Bay doubts has the background.

Kelly said a community benefit fund could connect developments with TasTAFE and the University of Tasmania to build skills pathways. Ellis said the government will soon release its final data centre expectations statement, which is to include a local community benefit fund. Separately, the Greens have called for a data centre moratorium.