Small businesses that rely on credit cards to pay tax have been handed a reprieve after Treasurer Jim Chalmers forced the tax office to push back its controversial payment ban in exchange for more funding.

Dr Chalmers bowed to a concerted business lobby campaign on Friday, announcing the Australian Taxation Office would delay its initial deadline of November 30 until the end of the financial year.

The tax office surprised businesses by announcing it would no longer accept the payment method on October 1, the day a ban on card surcharges came into effect.

Business groups argued credit card payments were important for smaller operators to manage lumpy cash flow.

“This will give them the time to consult more with small business and to get it right,” Dr Chalmers told reporters in Brisbane.

At the time, ATO commissioner Rob Heferen said merchant fees were expected to cost the tax office almost $200 million annually, which it could not absorb because it would result in less funds being available for government services.

“Meeting the cost of surcharges through additional public funding for the ATO would have the same ultimate outcome,” he said.

But Dr Chalmers handed the tax office extra funding anyway, delaying the credit card ban until June 30, 2027.

The cost of the funding boost will be finalised in the mid-year budget update in December, he said. 

Dr Chalmers blamed credit card companies for not offering low enough fees to allow the ATO to keep accepting card payments.

“The ATO will continue to engage with card companies on this matter,” he said.

After June 30, the tax office would continue to accept credit card payments via third parties as well as debit cards and bank transfers, Dr Chalmers said.

The tax office said it would continue consultations on how to support taxpayers experiencing financial hardship and to identify alternative arrangements for businesses that could not use other payment methods.

The decision gave small businesses much-needed breathing space, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said.

“But this decision does not save them from rising costs and shrinking margins,” he said.

The coalition would introduce legislation to parliament next week ensuring the ban was scrapped, shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said.

“The tax office gets a taxpayer-funded bailout, but the local cafe gets thrown under the bus. It’s one rule for Canberra and another for small business,” he said.

The tax office said only five per cent of small businesses used credit cards to pay tax in 2024/25.

About 85 per cent of small merchants did not impose surcharges before the ban was put in place and would not be negatively impacted by the change, said the Reserve Bank of Australia, which oversaw the reforms.

The broader reform package included capping interchange fees on card transactions and improving transparency of fees paid by merchants to card network providers.

That should theoretically drive down costs for businesses long term, RMIT University professor of finance Angel Zhong said.

Major banks, including Commonwealth Bank and Westpac, have reduced merchant fees in response.

But not all the savings had been passed on, Prof Zhong said.

“It really depends on the payment service providers you use. Usually, large business will have better bargaining power to actually negotiate a better deal,” she told AAP.

“My hope is that as the transparency of the system improves, the industry will become more competitive and then there are better deals for businesses.”

Businesses were expected to save $900 million a year in lower interchange fees, Dr Chalmers said.

It’s been an age since we’ve seen them but Powderfinger is finally returning for a national tour.

The legendary rock band will perform around Australia from September 2027, with the announcement on Friday sending fans into a frenzy after days of cryptic teasers.

​”Just want to say a massive thank you to these five blokes for making much happiness for sooooo many people today.  It’s been a long wait, but there was always hope,” said one fan online.

“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry! All my dreams have come true,” said another.

Starting up in Brisbane in 1989, Powderfinger is one of Australia’s most successful rock bands, with five albums topping the ARIA Charts and 18 ARIA awards over 21 years of recording and touring.

Their best known songs are firm favourites in the Australian songbook, including My Happiness, Lost and Running, Sunsets, and (Baby I’ve Got You) On My Mind.

But they haven’t performed live since 2010, with the exception of a one-off charity performance during COVID when the band played in isolation from each other.

Band members Bernard Fanning, Darren Middleton, Ian Haug, John Collins and Jon Coghill announced the national tour via an Instagram video on Friday morning, following a mysterious billboard and social media campaign across Australia.

“We always said that if we were going to get back together to do some shows you’d be the first to know, and you’re the first to know,” said frontman Bernard Fanning.

“We’re going to build something pretty special just for you guys … we will see you from the stage,” said guitarist Darren Middleton.

People have been encouraged to join the band’s fan club, with more information to be released at 6am on Monday.

The teaser campaign for the reunion tour started earlier in the week with billboards in capital cities featuring grids of numbers and letters, which could be decoded as references to the band’s discography and the date of their final live show in Brisbane in 2010.

The band has been vocal about AI companies stealing the copyrighted work of Australian artists, and guitarist Ian Haug promised in a social media post that no AI would be used in Powderfinger’s reunion performances.

The former booker at the Brisbane venue where Powderfinger played some of their earliest gigs, Andrea Smith, said the band started off playing a 200-capacity room at the Orient Hotel in 1990 on a night where punters could see five bands for five dollars.

Within a short time they were getting lines around the block, and two years later they’d made the big time, Smith told AAP.

“Obviously lots of passion, heaps of enthusiasm, and you could see that there was a seed of something there,” she said.

The music mentor and educator believes Powderfinger’s enduring success is not only down to their songs, but also who they are.

“It’s the way they treat people, there’s a love for the band, but there’s also this massive respect from the band to the fans,” said Smith.

Powderfinger has stood the test of time, according to veteran music critic and novelist Noel Mengel.

“Good songs and good performances don’t fade, and the essential thing about music to me is it’s so heavily linked in with memory, and people remember them very fondly,” he told AAP.

He recalls the long road to the band’s peak years in the 2000s, saying Powderfinger always had a long-term plan.

“I remember asking John Collins what was the worst early time? And it was going to Geelong and playing to 20 people or something, when they were young and enthusiastic enough to do that … all those bands from Brisbane did that, most of it in the car or the Tarago van.”

US President Donald Trump’s administration has frozen some green-card filings by Microsoft, Adobe and major IT outsourcers and opened probes into nine elite universities, widening a visa crackdown it says targets fraud and local job losses.

The ‌twin actions mark the broadest strike yet against skilled-worker immigration programs, potentially blocking a common path to permanent residency for thousands of foreign tech workers while putting some of the country’s ‌most prominent research universities on notice.

“Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,” Vice President JD Vance said.

US Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the suspension would also cover Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini.

“We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labour certification applications involving these companies,” Sonderling said.

Vance also said nine universities, including Harvard, ‌Yale and Stanford, would be ‌investigated for what the ⁠administration called the misuse of exchange-visitor visas to undercut American wages.

Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro and Capgemini did not ​immediately respond to requests for comment. Tata Consultancy Services declined to comment.

Under the Labor Department’s permanent labour certification process, known as PERM, which is required for most employment-based green cards, employers must show that hiring a foreign worker will not harm the wages, working conditions or job opportunities of US workers. Approved applications then go to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The freeze does not appear to directly affect current holders of H-1B visas, which allow companies to employ foreign workers temporarily. But it could block a common route by which employers sponsor those workers ⁠for permanent residency.

Indian IT firms such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro and HCL, along with Cognizant, ‌have long been among ​the biggest users of H-1B visas.

Amazon.com was the largest employer of approved H-1B beneficiaries in fiscal 2026, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Apple and Microsoft, according to USCIS ​data.

Microsoft is also ‌the largest filer of PERM applications, according to Permtrack.app, which compiles Labor Department disclosure data.

The suspensions are the latest in a series of steps against skilled-worker programs. In ​September last year, the Labor Department launched an enforcement drive called Project Firewall, as a White House proclamation imposed a one-time $US100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions for workers hired from abroad.

During President Donald Trump’s second term, companies have faced growing pressure to keep jobs and production in the United States rather than move them overseas.

The ​action ​comes despite closer ties between the administration and tech leaders, who are ​lobbying for lighter AI regulation. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was among the executives at a ‌White House AI summit on September 29.

The nine universities also include Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Vance accused them of using J-1 exchange-visitor visas to bring in international students and undercut American wages. Labor Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said subpoenas had already been served.

with AP

Australia’s rental market has experienced its slowest price growth in almost two years, defying expectations of a surge in rents following budget changes to investor tax breaks.

In Sydney, rents fell 0.4 per cent in the September quarter, leading a broader slowdown in rental growth as vacancy rates edged up across the nation, data provider Cotality reported on Friday.

Across Australia, rents grew at 0.5 per cent in the quarter, down from the 1.6 per cent increase in the June quarter and 2.1 per cent in the three months to March.

Annual rental growth eased from 5.9 per cent to 5.5 per cent, as the national median dwelling rent hit a record high $713 per week.

Cotality research director Tim Lawless said the market was softening as more renters reached their affordability limits and adjusted their household sizes.

“With rental affordability so stretched and broader cost-of-living pressures, rental demand is likely to be restructuring as people form larger households, stay in the family home for longer or look further afield for more affordable accommodation,” he said.

Vacancy rates, which had been historically tight since the post-pandemic migration spike, have rebounded.

As net overseas migration has since normalised, annual population growth eased to 1.4 per cent in the year to March 2026, below the pre-COVID-19 decade average of 1.6 per cent, Mr Lawless said.

After reaching a record low of 1.5 per cent in February, the national vacancy rate climbed to 1.7 per cent in the March and June quarters and hit 2.1 per cent in September.

In Sydney, the vacancy rate was 2.5 per cent, compared with 1.8 per cent a year earlier.

“Rents have risen substantially faster than incomes over the past six years, while cost-of-living pressures are likely to remain elevated. Rental growth appears to have reached, or is close to, a ceiling,” Mr Lawless said.

“Vacancy rates may remain relatively tight, but renters simply have less capacity to absorb the rate of increases we’ve seen over recent years.”

Labor’s changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount were forecast in the budget to cause rents to increase an extra $2 per week than they otherwise would have.

Property groups, including Master Builders, the Property Council and the Real Estate Institute of Australia, commissioned modelling that showed a larger impact on rental prices.

Fewer property investors in the market would lead to less rental supply and an increase in the cost of renting, they argued.

Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson told the National Press Club that rents would go up, just like they did in the 1980s, when Paul Keating briefly scrapped negative gearing.

But independent economist Saul Eslake said there was no evidence to support the claim.

“If a lie is big enough and you tell it often enough it becomes the truth,” he told AAP.

When the Hawke government abolished negative gearing in 1986, rental growth only climbed materially in Sydney and Perth, where vacancy rates were already unusually low.

In every other capital, rental growth eased or held steady.

Property investors have been retreating from the market in 2026, as evidenced by June quarter lending figures, Mr Eslake said.

But that does not necessarily result in higher rents.

Every property not bought by an investor is by definition bought by an owner-occupier, which reduces demand in the rental market at the same time as it reduces supply, he said.

A minor party has launched a historic election campaign committing to make life affordable again for a state hit by cost-of-living pressures.

The Victorian Greens gathered at the launch in Melbourne on Thursday evening, attended by hundreds of party faithful.

“This is our moment,” Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell told AAP.

The party unveiled a suite of policies including a $350 million pledge to trial 10 state-owned supermarkets for four years.

The move is inspired by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to establish a public grocer in each of the city’s five boroughs.

“We’re taking a leaf out of Zohran Mamdani’s book and know so many of his bold ideas can translate here in Victoria,” Ms Sandell said.

The plan is designed to deliver essentials at a 30 per cent discount compared to major chains including Woolworths and Coles, saving the average Victorian household an estimated $4274 a year.

The Greens also pledged to $1 billion into community safety over four years in a program also inspired by one introduced by Mr Mamdani. 

While the party hopes frustrations with a 12-year-old Labor government will boost its odds, polls point to a three-way race between the incumbent, the coalition and an insurgent One Nation.

But all is not lost, according to senator David Shoebridge, who took the charge of the federal leadership last week.

“It’s been 12 years of Labor. What has it got us?” Senator Shoebridge said.

“So can we make this commitment right now? That if you are door-knocking, double down and double the door knock.

“That when you’re a bit knackered at the end of the day on a Saturday, knock four more doors.”

Senator Shoebridge said it was time to take back the country, and it started in Victoria.

The Victorian Coalition and Labor government also made respective pledges on Thursday, weeks out from the November 28 poll.

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson committed $10.4 million to help bring an Australian-first cancer treatment to Victoria.

Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre would host the country’s first proton beam therapy service, a highly targeted form of radiation treatment.

It uses high-energy protons rather than traditional X-ray photons to destroy cancer cells while reducing damage to healthy tissue.

Ms Wilson said Victoria should be “leading the nation” in its cancer care, calling on the federal government to match her funding commitment.

Pressed on the Coalition’s pledge, Premier Ben Carroll said it would cost $80 to $100 million, far more than they had budgeted.

His comment came while he announced that a re-elected Labor government would deliver 150 new fire trucks by 2030.

The $167 million commitment would deliver 100 tankers to the Country Fire Authority and 50 to Fire Rescue Victoria, added to rolling replacements. 

Global shares have slid as strains in sovereign bond markets were aggravated by a jump in oil and gas ‌prices and reports that some major tech firms were seeking to raise billions in debt in direct competition for limited funding.

Europe saw renewed selling of French and other heavily indebted countries’ debt plus a near three-month low for the region’s shares ‌early on as a trio of European Central Bank policymakers also issued fresh inflation warnings.

Oil prices were up nearly four per cent amid an increase in attacks on shipping in the Gulf, adding to the bond jitters despite a strong auction of US 10-year debt on ‌Wednesday that had pulled back benchmark Treasury yields from 24-year peaks.

While lofty yields underpinned the dollar, the euro struggled near a 17-month low as the concerns over France’s finances continued to spread to Italian and Greek debt, as well as parts of the banking sector.

“Markets are going to be watchful if that contagion continues,” said Kiran Ganesh, a multi-asset strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management.

“At this stage, the markets would be most comforted by monetary intervention,” he said, referring to the ECB buying bonds to ease the strains.

“But I think what we learned in the euro zone crisis in 2011, is that monetary authorities will turn to the fiscal authorities first to get their house in order.”

The steady climb in borrowing costs put equities on ‌the defensive.

The pan-European STOXX 600 ‌on Thursday was down one per cent at its lowest since ⁠June, while a similar fall from France’s CAC 40 in Paris left it down more than 12 per cent from an August record high.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei shed 1.4 per cent, South Korea slumped 2.6 per cent, while Wall Street futures had the S&P 500 and Nasdaq pointing to a modestly lower start.

In commodity markets, Brent futures rose back above $US104 a barrel in their biggest jump in a month, while US crude futures added 3.2 per cent to $US91.43 a barrel.

The Wall Street Journal added to media reports that SpaceX, Broadcom and Oracle were looking to raise money to buy AI chips.

Broadcom was looking for $US50 billion ($A72 billion) in financing, while SpaceX was planning to issue $US30 billion in investment-grade debt and raise $US10 billion in loans to buy chips from Nvidia, which is a major ⁠shareholder in SpaceX.

All this corporate debt comes ​at a time when sovereign bond markets are being sorely tested by inflation fears, ever-widening budget deficits and ​rising cash rates.

Minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting released on Wednesday showed “most” members considered another rate hike likely by ‌year-end, though they would approach each meeting with an open mind.

The prospect of a pause in tightening helped keep two-year Treasury yields at 4.80 per cent, while 10-year yields crept up to 5.33 per cent in European trading, having hit a 24-year top of 5.36 per cent overnight.

Strains in the French bond market led Bank of France head Emmanuel Moulin to acknowledge the country’s economic situation was serious, but said it did not need help from the European Central Bank.

Investors reacted ​by offloading the euro, which was pinned at $US1.1185 after having lost 0.6 per cent on Wednesday.

A break of the recent low at $US1.1161 would risk a retreat to $US1.1065.

The dollar was the main beneficiary of the single currency’s woes and its index ​rose to 102.34, near an 18-month peak.

It was steady ⁠on the yen at 158.22, with the Japanese currency protected by the threat of intervention.

Gold managed a modest 0.6 per cent bounce to $US4,136 ​an ounce.

Coach Joe Montemurro says the Matildas support Mary Fowler’s decision to miss upcoming friendlies for personal circumstances and is adamant they have the creative players available to cover her.

Fowler, 23, this week withdrew from the squad to play world No.3 Germany on Saturday (AEDT) and Haiti on Wednesday.

“It’s really important that we create an environment that is important for the player, and as the circumstances are private I’m not going to elaborate,” Montemurro said. 

“But yes, absolutely, discussions were had with Mary, with the club (Manchester City), and with the relative people, and we believe that we’ve made the right decision and I think everyone’s in support of the situation.”

There has been speculation that Fowler has returned to Australia to support her partner, Nathan Cleary, which Football Australia has not confirmed.

The Penrith rugby league star required emergency surgery after suffering a career-threatening badly broken leg in the Panthers’ NRL preliminary final loss in late September.

“No, I don’t know what the situation is,” Australian goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold said. 

“I messaged both her and Nathan when it happened just to say ‘I hope you guys are doing OK.’ 

“But yeah, I’m not really sure the actual reason that she’s headed home.”

Players opting out of windows for personal reasons is not rare, especially given the intense schedules of club and international football.

“At the end of the day, we’re all human. You can’t always base your life around football,” Arnold said.

“I have never personally been in that experience, so I don’t really know how to put it into words. 

“But I would say if I had that situation that I felt the need to go home and I asked the coach for that and I had full trust in him that he was going to give me that permission – then of course, it’s important.

“But I think the the bottom line is, at the end of the day we’re all human, so if we need to make that decision, then that’s what we need to go with.”

The Matildas are without three of their best creative outlets – Fowler, Kyra Cooney-Cross and Katrina Gorry – for this window.

But Montemurro backed Australia’s “very, very talented” midfield depth.

“This is now a great opportunity, a fantastic opportunity first of all, to bring them in and to understand what we’re trying to do in terms of from a high-performance scenario, but more importantly now to be able to expose them against some of the best midfielders in the world,” he said.

Montemurro name-dropped Vittsjo gun Dani Galic, Nottingham Forest midfielder Alana Murphy and uncapped Valarenga playmaker Hana Lowry.

“They’re names I want you to remember, because I really do believe that they’re going to be the next generation of midfielders,” he said.

“And look, I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about the amount of midfielders, and talented midfielders, that we have in Australia, and I think that that needs to be a starting point for us.”

Ranking points are on the line ahead of December’s World Cup draw.

A win over Germany would help world No.15 Australia stay firmly in pot two out of four, meaning a mathematically better draw.

“I wouldn’t say we really take any game as a friendly,” Arnold said.

Australia needs more investment in regional digital infrastructure before data centres can be built away from homes, an inquiry has heard.

The nation has about 1.6 gigawatts of data centre capacity, which is likely to extend to three gigawatts by the 2030 financial year.

Much of that capacity ought to be in regional areas, where there is adequate land for development and limited noise pollution near homes, Telstra executives told a government committee on Thursday.

But for that to happen, thousands of kilometres of physical network, including ramps that allow connection points for regional hubs, need to be built.

Telstra is creating 30 of those connection points across the country through its Aura Network, expected to cost $1.8 billion.

“Our role is to ensure that all Australians can participate in this digital economy,” head of Telstra digital infrastructure Steven Worrall said.

Community backlash about data centre locations has grown in recent years.

Developer The Goodman Group abandoned plans for a $1.2 billion project in Sydney’s Lane Cove after intense scrutiny about its location near homes.

In September, AI giant Anthropic signed a deal for a $32 billion data hub in Queensland’s Western Downs. It would be the largest centre of its kind in the country, and one of the only large-scale sites based rurally.

Though it is expected to inject revenue into the surrounding towns, some locals are concerned their businesses will be steamrolled.

The government inquiry has been hearing about these sorts of tensions for several days as it probes businesses, big tech and advocacy groups on Australia’s AI future.

It’s an issue being grappled with at an international level.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week met with Father Paolo Benanti, who has advised the Vatican on AI take-up, about Australia’s role globally.

Like many countries, Australia is planning to bring in national AI standards.

They are set to be drafted by the end of the year and will require newly built data centres to offset all of their electricity consumption with renewable energy investment.

“We know the government’s new rules push us to 100 per cent (renewable power), everyone is on board with that,” Data Centres Australia chief executive Belinda Dennett told the committee on Thursday.

“What we have to do is get the mechanisms right to ensure those renewable energy projects can be built at the same pace as data centres can be built, because at the moment there’s a mismatch in timing.”

Australia was at risk of missing the boat, the MPs and senators heard.

“We need to speed up our renewable energy progress rather than slow down our data centre progress because if we slow down, that capital will move elsewhere,” Ms Dennett said.

Data centres are in a battle to solidify their social licence, with some states, including Victoria, cracking down on companies and no longer allowing them to build warehouses in residential areas.

In NSW, the Lane Cove community successfully campaigned against plans for a now-scrapped centre just 150 metres from a school. Other neighbourhoods are following suit.

The facilities are expected to account for 10 per cent of Australia’s electricity demand by 2050, up from about two per cent today.

But the companies insisted they had always pulled their weight and were not on the hunt for loopholes.

“There’s no free ride in there,” Ms Dennett said.

“We’ve always paid for our own energy use … and there’s no tax incentives to build data centres in Australia.”

While Labor has copped criticism for being sluggish in legislating the standards announced by Mr Albanese in July, the committee heard Australia was actually ahead of the curve on cushioning the electricity market against the AI boom’s demand.

An alliance of regional banks and mutual funds has trashed an industry plan to use multi-bank hubs to salvage face-to-face banking in the bush, saying it will fail customers.

The Australian Banking Association wants regulator approval for regional service commitments, a trial of up to 10 regional banking hubs, a joint funding model to back them, and regional service commitments.

But the rival Regional Banking Investment Alliance says the plan falls short, and hubs could only handle a fraction of the services people need.

“They need help with scams, access to cash and somewhere to discuss their finances privately,” chief executive at Regional Australia Bank David Heine said.

The alliance had already provided a funding model in response to federal Treasury’s levy-based, redistribution model proposed in 2024.

“The government has a practical funding proposal on its desk,” Mr Heine said. “It is time to act.”

The alliance is made up of 25 regional banks, including customer-owned mutual funds and supporters.

The banking association represents 20 institutions, including the big four banks, regional banks turned national, and international banks operating in Australia.

The latter’s plan, which has been submitted to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for approval, could ensure regional customers can bank in the ways that suit them, chief executive and former federal Liberal finance minister Simon Birmingham said.

“Banks recognise that some customers still prefer face-to-face options even though the number of transactions in branches has plummeted, challenging their viability,” he said.

In-branch interactions in regional Australia have tumbled 63 per cent since 2019, while cash payments account for 15 per cent of total transactions, down from 70 per cent in 2007, industry and government figures show.

Hub models already exist in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

“Branches will continue to be an option for regional customers,” Mr Birmingham said. 

“However, this hub trial explores new ways to deliver face-to-face banking services in communities that currently don’t have a branch.”

Nearly 850 banks have closed across regional, rural and remote Australia between mid-2017 and mid-2025, according to prudential regulator data.

The wave of closures has left an estimated 600 towns without a bank.

The current figure, and the impact of a federally imposed moratorium on regional branch closures, won’t be known until 2026 financial year data is released later in October.

While some major banks had opted to extend a government-imposed moratorium on regional branch closures, they failed to bring back shuttered outlets, and many were operating with reduced hours and services, Traditional Credit Union chief executive Simon Lyons said 

“Banking hubs and Bank@Post can help, but they cannot be the whole answer,” he said.

“Communities need trained people who understand their circumstances and can help when a banking problem becomes urgent.”

Last week, Commonwealth Bank extended its moratorium on regional branch closures until the end of the decade. Westpac gave a similar guarantee in November last year.

National Australia Bank and ANZ remain committed to an earlier industry-wide closure pause until mid-2027, with ANZ boss Nuno Matos previously expressing his support for banking hubs.

A blockbuster corporate float that was set to be the second-largest in Australian history is at risk of being pulled after institutional investors turned up their noses at its multi-billion-dollar initial public offering.

Firmus Technologies was seeking to raise $7 billion in an IPO that valued the data centre operator at a whopping $44 billion, which would have put it ahead of Coles, QBE and all but around 15 companies on the local bourse.

But The Australian and The Australian Financial Review were both reporting on Thursday that bankers were struggling to find buyers for the float at its hoped-for price of $11 per share.

They were attempting to salvage the listing by slashing the price to around $8.25 per share, both publications reported, quoting anonymous sources.

“Obviously, it’s still a lot of rumours and innuendo, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and I think at this stage they’re going to have a lot of trouble getting this float away,” WeBull Australia chief executive Rob Talevski told AAP.

“Clearly, demand’s not there.”

Shares in Maas Group, a Dubbo, NSW-based diversified industrial group that owns a 3.2 per cent stake in Firmus and is also a supplier to the company, plunged by over 20 per cent to a more than two-month low of $4.96 on Thursday.

In response to a query from the ASX, Maas Group attributed the slide to market speculation and commentary about whether Firmus’ IPO would be proceeding.

Critics questioned Firmus’ valuation because the company is still in start-up phase and only a fraction of its AI data centres have actually been constructed. 

It has just two currently operational, in Melbourne and Singapore, with plans to build many more, including two in Tasmania that have run into community opposition.

Firmus plans to issue around $US30 billion in debt to pay build the data centres, then rent the “AI factories” back to big tech companies such as Meta.

The company was founded as a Bitcoin mining company in 2019 by Oliver Curtis, his cousin Tim Rosenfield and brother-in-law Jonathan Levee. 

The husband of Sydney socialite Roxy Jacenko, Mr Curtis was convicted a decade ago in a high-profile insider trading case and served 12 months in prison out of his two-year sentence. 

Mr Curtis holds a 13.3 per cent stake in Firmus, with its other investors including AI chipmaker Nvidia, global private equity giant Blackstone and local backers Regal Partners and Wilson Asset Management.

Ron Shamgar, the head of Australian equities at TAMIM Asset Management, agreed that the IPO was likely dead.

“A repriced IPO is a dud IPO!” he posted on social media. “That’s the #1 rule.”

Mr Talevski said that if the float was pulled, it would be a “disaster in a sense,” but the market had a short memory and Firmus could always float later at a lower valuation.

“But I think there’s a lot to weigh up here,” he added, noting that a growing community backlash against data centres suggested that building them might not be as easy as first thought.