Expanding its global footprint following a 20-year Riot contract in the US and a massive $45bn Nscale deal in Britain, Anthropic has secured its inaugural Australian computing location. According to two anonymous insiders who spoke with Reuters, the artificial intelligence firm agreed to secure space roughly 250km west of Brisbane on agricultural land. The prospective development aims for an eventual output of 2.16 GW, positioning the hub among the world’s most expansive server complexes. Commercial details, including total expenditures and agreement length, were not revealed.
Based in Singapore, the project developer is anticipated to be Zerra DC. Sources noted that this specific installation will exclusively perform rapid inference computations to run pre-trained algorithms rather than build new foundation models. Realizing this initiative depends on regulatory clearance from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board alongside local planning authorization from the Dalby council.
The recent move caps off nearly a year of active maneuvering by the tech enterprise across the nation. During a trip to Canberra in March, chief executive Dario Amodei executed an official memorandum of understanding with federal authorities, remarking that the organization was “exploring investments in data center infrastructure and energy throughout the country.” Furthermore, correspondence obtained by the ABC demonstrated that prior to that journey, company representatives queried New South Wales officials regarding hosting up to 5GW of model training capacity.
This proposal arrives amid heightened political friction over power generation funding for energy-intensive digital assets. Federal policymakers in Canberra are drafting national guidelines obligating large-scale computing hubs to procure electricity strictly from newly established green initiatives. Conversely, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli advocates for frameworks accommodating fossil fuels like coal and gas. Notably, Zerra’s chosen acreage sits adjacent to three gas-powered facilities alongside existing wind and solar installations.
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