October was the busiest month yet for Australian AI. Local companies raised money and shipped products, CommBank set a precedent on copyright, and Anthropic edged closer to building here. It also delivered the year’s biggest cautionary tale, as Firmus went from planning the largest ASX float in three decades to scrapping it and drawing the corporate watchdog’s attention. Here is the month so far.
Money and launches
The month opened with Medow Health AI raising $3.5 million for its AI front desk, and on 8 October Square Peg raised more than $1 billion for new funds (Forbes Australia). Late in the month, NonPublic channelled $118 million of Australian money into chipmaker Tenstorrent.
Product launches came thick and fast. PwC Australia launched AI-powered cyber managed services, Xometry brought its AI-driven manufacturing marketplace to Australia, and Slater and Gordon launched a “first port of call” AI tool for prospective clients. LinkedIn’s annual list showed how far the shift has gone, with its top Australian startups turning into an AI showcase.
Research and skills
Universities had a strong month. Quantinuum partnered with the University of Western Australia on a hybrid quantum, AI and supercomputing ecosystem, and Deakin will lead a new $5 million ARC Training Centre for AI governance. In the corporate world, CommBank topped an Asia-Pacific AI ranking and fast-tracked engineer training.
A copyright precedent
CommBank also set the tone on the month’s most contested issue. Under a first-of-its-kind deal for workplace AI, copyright fees will flow back to Australian creators. Public opinion is leaning the same way, with a late-October poll finding voters back creators in the AI copyright fight.
Anthropic and the policy debate
Anthropic kept building its Australian presence. On 6 October Reuters reported it was open to tougher laws on rogue AI agents, and on 13 October an envoy said the company was eyeing data centre investment in Australia. By late October, retail brokers were racing to sell Australians a slice of Anthropic.
On the political side, Ted O’Brien said an AI deal with the US is the Coalition’s “first priority”, and a widely read AFR piece declared “I won’t let Australia be at the mercy of foreign AI”.
The Firmus float that wasn’t
The month’s hardest story was Firmus. In early October the AI infrastructure company shelved what would have been the biggest ASX listing in 30 years. Partner MAAS Group said its Firmus contracts remained on track, and by 20 October the ABC reported Firmus still wanted funds for its Tasmanian data centre. On 29 October the SMH reported that the failed float is being probed by the corporate watchdog, and the ABC asked what it means for billions in planned AI data centre builds. Our full story: Scrapped Firmus float leaves Tasmanian AI factory hunting for cash.
What it adds up to
October showed both sides of a maturing market. The capital, the launches, the research centres and the copyright deals are real, and most of them are home-grown. Firmus is the reminder that ambition still needs funding to match, and that the market will price that risk. Catch up on how we got here in our September roundup.
