1. Nvidia-Backed Firmus Raises $505 Million as Asia-Pacific AI Data Centre Race Heats Up
Australian AI infrastructure builder Firmus Technologies has closed a $505 million funding round led by Coatue Management, with chipmaker Nvidia also participating. The deal values the company at $5.5 billion and marks its third equity raise in six months, bringing total capital raised during that period to $1.35 billion. Firmus builds GPU-dense data centres purpose-built for large-scale AI workloads, with its flagship Project Southgate aiming to deploy multiple "AI Factories" across Australia in partnership with Nvidia and CDC Data Centres. An IPO on the Australian Securities Exchange is expected as early as June, in what would be the country's largest tech listing this decade.
Why it matters: Firmus already operates data centres in Singapore through a partnership with Temasek-backed ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, and co-founder Oliver Curtis has said the Singapore deployment provides "a proven blueprint for scaling across Southeast Asia." As regional AI spending approaches $78 billion, the race to build sovereign-capable AI infrastructure in Asia-Pacific is attracting serious capital - and enterprise buyers across the region stand to benefit from more locally hosted compute options that reduce latency and satisfy data residency requirements.
Read more: https://asia.nikkei.com/business/technology/nvidia-backed-data-center-builder-firmus-raises-505m^
2. China's Navy Deploys AI on Warships in Push to Intelligentise Its Military
China's navy has fitted its Qinzhou guided-missile frigate with an AI algorithm designed to eliminate blind spots during air defence engagements, according to state media reports analysed by Defence News. The Type 054B stealth frigate, commissioned last year, conducted a combat drill in the South China Sea and is described by Chinese military commentators as a "major leap in integrated combat capability." Broader PLA announcements show AI expanding into drone swarms, space operations and cyber warfare, though analysts say Beijing is picking its battles carefully rather than seeking short-term parity with the United States. One PLA institution has tested AI controlling roughly 200 autonomous vehicles with a single operator.
Why it matters: For governments and defence contractors across the Indo-Pacific, this signals that AI-enabled naval assets are no longer theoretical - they are being deployed in disputed waters where Southeast Asian nations have direct territorial stakes. The South China Sea remains the region's most sensitive flashpoint, and the integration of AI into Chinese warships raises the urgency for ASEAN members and allies such as Japan and Australia to assess their own military AI readiness and supply chain dependencies on Chinese-made components.
3. Microsoft Commits $6.5 Billion to AI Build-Out Across Southeast Asia
Microsoft has announced a combined $6.5 billion investment in AI and cloud infrastructure across Southeast Asia, split between $5.5 billion for Singapore through 2029 and more than $1 billion for Thailand through 2028. Vice Chair Brad Smith unveiled the Singapore commitment at the Asia Tech x Inspire event on 1 April, coupling the spend with free Microsoft 365 Copilot access for over 200,000 tertiary students and new AI training programmes for educators and nonprofits. The Thailand portion covers data centre infrastructure built to global green energy and water positivity standards. The investments form part of Microsoft's broader $50 billion Global South AI plan.
Why it matters: Singapore already ranks second globally in AI adoption, and this injection of hyperscaler infrastructure positions it as the region's de facto AI compute hub. For enterprise buyers across ASEAN, the immediate consequence is greater local availability of Azure AI services, lower-latency inference, and tighter data sovereignty - all of which reduce friction for organisations that have held off on cloud AI adoption due to compliance or performance concerns. Thailand's inclusion signals that the infrastructure build-out is extending beyond the usual Singapore-only playbook into emerging Southeast Asian markets.