Firmus' IPO in jeopardy; Tech giants at the AI inquiry.

<p>Firmus&#39;s ASX IPO hangs in the balance as institutional investors grow increasingly sceptic before the book build was due to close. Meanwhile, the Joint Select Committee on AI wraps a big week of hearings, with tech giants including OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and Google facing questions on their responsibilities and the AI opportunity in Australia.</p><p>We discuss:</p><ul><li>Firmus&#39; IPO unravelling in real time - a possible repricing or second pull, and why offshore funds are raising their eyebrows.</li><li>The high debt load bearing down on Firmus.</li><li>Mass Group&#39;s exposure as both an equity holder and construction partner, and why its stock cratered this morning.</li><li>Why Australian VCs are watching the Firmus float nervously, and the fear of &quot;vaporware&quot; contagion spreading to local tech sector espectations.</li><li>OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon fronting the Joint Select Committee on AI and responding to the Services Australia breach</li><li>Anthropic&#39;s Jeff Bleich, Microsoft, Google and the big banks all appearing before the committee</li><li>Matt Comyn&#39;s pitch for Australia as a &quot;high capability AI nation&quot; — and what that means in practice</li><li>Heidi Health&#39;s compute-for-equity deal as a blueprint for Australian AI businesses that don&#39;t build foundation models</li></ul><p><br></p><p>On The Call is a weekly live conversation with the Capital Brief newsroom on the stories driving the agenda in Australia&#39;s centres of power.</p><p>Host Harshdeep Kaur sits down with Capital Brief&#39;s best journalists to dissect what we&#39;re watching and why it matters, and answer questions from our subscribers live.</p><p>Subscribe to join our weekly live discussion on Thursdays at 12pm AEDT: <a href="https://www.capitalbrief.com/on-the-call/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.capitalbrief.com/on-the-call/</a></p><p>Sign up to our free weekly newsletter, The Edition: <a href="https://www.capitalbrief.com/newsletters/the-edition/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.capitalbrief.com/newsletters/the-edition/</a></p>