AI computing company raises $253m

Australia-based Sharon AI, which is developing high-power computing infrastructure based on Nvidia GPUs which it will lease out for AI projects, has raised at least $US170 million ($253 million) through a convertible note deal and the sale of its 50% stake in a Texas data centre project.

Canaccord Genuity Australia was the sole lead manager for Sharon AI’s $US100 million capital raising in which new and existing institutional investors – believed to include Australian super funds – and strategic corporates participated. The deal was announced on 22 December.

On 24 December in New York, Sharon AI’s US holding company (SharonAI Holdings Inc) announced it had entered into a binding agreement to sell its 50% interest in Texas Critical Data Centers LLC (TCDC) for $US70 million to joint venture partner New Era Energy and Digital Inc.

Capital from the latest raising and the sale of the interest in the Texas data centre project is expected to primarily be used to accelerate the deployment of high-density computing power, in partnership with data centre developer NEXTDC (ASX: NXT), using Nvidia B200s, B300s and GB300s GPUs (graphic processor units). Sharon AI is banking on firming up development of its computing power to enable it to engage with additional large potential customers.

The company currently operates a flagship 1K GPU cluster built on Nvidia reference architecture which it claims represents one of Australia’s most advanced supercomputers. The physical infrastructure is located at the Equinix data centre in Sydney and the NEXTDC data centre in Melbourne.

After the capital raising, chairman and co-founder James Manning said: “This funding is expected to accelerate the deployment of high-density compute infrastructure, strengthen our partnerships with NEXTDC and all of our eco system partners, and drive revenue growth across the Asia-Pacific region as we build Australia’s leading sovereign neocloud platform.”

In early November, Sharon AI announced it had signed an agreement to materially expand its data centre footprint with up to 50MW of additional capacity across NEXTDC’s Australian and Asia-Pacific data centre network.

The company said placing orders for additional GPUs would strengthen its relationship with its growing partner network which also includes Cisco, Megaport, Lenovo, VAST Data and World Wide Technology.

On 19 December, Sharon AI announced the completion of a SPAC (special acquisition company) deal with Roth CH Acquisition Co. and Roth CH Holdings Inc which had first been announced in January 2025. As part of the deal, Roth CH Holdings Inc changed its name to SharonAI Holdings Inc and converted from a Cayman Islands domicile to become a Delaware State, US, company. Under the same transaction, Sharon AI’s US entity SharonAI Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of SharonAI Holdings Inc.

As a result of the SPAC transaction, investors in SharonAI Inc received shares and warrants in SharonAI Holdings which are now trading on the OTC Market under the ticker symbols SHAZ and SHAZW.

Chief executive of Sharon AI, Wolf Schubert, said: “We are pleased to close the business combination which is an important step in our journey to become a public company.”

Sharon AI’s moves to bolster its finances followed Australian rival Ellerston Capital investee Firmus Technologies raising an additional $500 million in October. Firmus is partnering with CDC Data Centres in developing AI factory data centres.

Image: Sharon AI is developing high-power computing infrastructure based on Nvidia chips.