Hayden Beamish, Chief Investment Officer at Perth-based Endeavor Asset Management, has revealed his early departure from Firmus, an artificial intelligence infrastructure start-up now anticipated for a major ASX debut. Firmus, an AI infrastructure developer leveraging cooling technology, computing power, and real estate, is backed by Nvidia, Blackstone, and Temasek, and is valued at approximately $8 billion on paper. Despite its subsequent extraordinary rise and high anticipation, Beamish, an initial investor, chose to exit his position in August 2023.
Beamish initially invested in Firmus in 2021 when it operated primarily as a bitcoin miner. His decision to sell predated the company’s crucial pivot to AI, a strategic shift that utilised its existing assets. “Firmus at the time was a bitcoin miner with a stretched balance sheet that was making no money and had no legitimate business model,” Beamish told The Australian Financial Review, describing its state as “terminal”. While acknowledging the management’s successful turnaround, Beamish now fears the “easy money” for Firmus has already been made, and its eventual ASX listing, expected in September, will likely be priced too expensively, leading him to avoid adding it to Endeavor’s Australian equities fund.
Beyond Firmus, Beamish holds a cautious outlook on the broader Australian economy, maintaining an “underweight” position on major banks due to anticipated further interest rate increases and persistent inflation. His fund has instead acquired companies oversold earlier this year amid AI disruption fears. Key holdings include real-estate listings platform REA Group and buy-now-pay-later firm Zip, where he sees considerable potential. Endeavor’s largest holding is BHP, benefiting from strong iron ore prices and surging copper demand, crucial for the global data centre expansion—a trend Beamish is keen to leverage despite his valuation concerns regarding Firmus.
