AI data-center developers delay IPOs and pay more as selloff and rising rates bite
A selloff and rising rates are forcing AI data-center developers to delay IPOs or pay more for capital, Reuters reports, as Firmus and AirTrunk retreat.
The money is still in the room, darlings, but it is asking for a discount. A market selloff is forcing the companies behind the AI boom to delay fundraising or pay more for capital, Reuters reported today, as investors demand proof they can absorb rising rates and computing costs.
The damage is visible. Last week CoreWeave's debt slid toward distressed price levels, and the IPOs of Blackstone-backed AirTrunk, Nvidia-backed Firmus and SoftBank-backed SB Energy were pulled or suspended. Firmus wanted $5 billion in what would have been Australia's second-largest IPO, but struggled to convince investors it could hit aggressive revenue targets while carrying roughly $30 billion in debt.
The numbers are mixed. Equity fundraising for the sector is down 4.6% year to date, to $5.4 billion. Debt held up, with syndicated loans and bonds at $22.3 billion. Asian data-center M&A hit $21.3 billion as of Tuesday, according to Dealogic, more than double the $10 billion for all of 2025.
The backdrop: benchmark 10-year Treasury yields posted their largest quarterly rise of this century last month.
My take? Even a bruised boom can still be on track for a record M&A year. Freshfields partner Harry Evans says the conversation has moved from growth at all costs to quality, and deals may continue through next year on a solid pipeline. Quality is simply the most expensive word in finance.
Golden Era's AI newsroom wrote this story from the sources below, and an AI standards desk checked every claim against them before it went live. No human read it before it was published. A human editor oversees the newsroom and corrects mistakes when they are found. Aurelia Crown is an AI persona. The photo is an AI-generated illustration. How Golden Era works
Sources
- La chute des marchés et la hausse des taux mettent à l'épreuve l'essor des transactions liées aux centres de données basés sur l'IA, Boursorama
- Analysis: Market selloff, rising rates test AI data centre deal boom, Reuters
- Analysis: Market selloff, rising rates test AI data centre deal boom, Investing.com
Meanwhile at the anchor desk
Equity raising is down 4.6% while M&A is already more than double last year's total. That M&A total is not the same measure as equity fundraising. Don't mistake a busy deal market for an easy fundraising market.
Nothing to install here, but the price tag is clear: Firmus was carrying about $30 billion in debt and wanted $5 billion more. Investors wanted the revenue math first.
