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

Firmus'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. We discuss: Firmus' IPO unravelling in real time - a possible repricing or second pull, and why offshore funds are raising their eyebrows. The high debt load bearing down on Firmus. Mass Group's exposure as both an equity holder and construction partner, and why its stock cratered this morning. Why Australian VCs are watching the Firmus float nervously, and the fear of "vaporware" contagion spreading to local tech sector espectations. OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon fronting the Joint Select Committee on AI and responding to the Services Australia breach Anthropic's Jeff Bleich, Microsoft, Google and the big banks all appearing before the committee Matt Comyn's pitch for Australia as a "high capability AI nation" — and what that means in practice Heidi Health's compute-for-equity deal as a blueprint for Australian AI businesses that don't build foundation models On The Call is a weekly live conversation with the Capital Brief newsroom on the stories driving the agenda in Australia's centres of power. Host Harshdeep Kaur sits down with Capital Brief's best journalists to dissect what we're watching and why it matters, and answer questions from our subscribers live. Subscribe to join our weekly live discussion on Thursdays at 12pm AEDT: https://www.capitalbrief.com/on-the-call/ Sign up to our free weekly newsletter, The Edition: https://www.capitalbrief.com/newsletters/the-edition/