Anthropic has finalized its first data center lease in Australia, locking in space at a future site that will rank among the world’s largest computing hubs. The arrangement covers a planned campus with a total capacity of 2.16 gigawatts, comparable to some of the biggest existing facilities worldwide. Two industry sources confirmed the deal’s details.
The new facility will rise on farmland approximately 250 kilometers northwest of Brisbane and is scheduled to open in 2027. Development will be handled by Zerra DC, a Singapore-based firm specializing in large-scale data center construction. Power will be supplied through long-term renewable energy contracts, eliminating grid dependency for current tenants. Final approval still requires clearance from the Foreign Investment Review Board.
This marks Anthropic’s first major expansion into Australia, following OpenAI’s similar off-take agreement for a Sydney data center announced last year. Both moves highlight Australia’s growing appeal for AI companies seeking land and energy at lower costs than the U.S. or Asia. While the Australian government plans to introduce resource-use restrictions for data centers starting in 2027, officials continue to position the sector as a potential $150 billion economic driver by 2030.
The Western Downs Digital Park will prioritize inference workloads, real-time prediction tasks, rather than the energy-intensive process of training AI models. The design incorporates a closed-loop air-cooling system to drastically reduce water consumption for server operations. These technical choices reflect Australia’s emerging regulations, which may soon limit the use of domestically generated content for model training purposes.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli announced the agreement in parliament, describing it as a major vote of confidence in the state’s capabilities. He emphasized Queensland’s energy reliability and efficient approval processes as key factors in securing the investment. Dexus, a major real estate firm involved in the project’s development consortium, also acknowledged the partnership’s significance.
Anthropic’s Australian push coincides with recent calls from CEO Dario Amodei for the industry to temporarily pause advancements in model capabilities. The proposal has received backing from tech leaders like Elon Musk and Sam Altman, though critics, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, have rejected the warnings as overly alarmist. The company’s Australian facility will proceed in staged construction, with initial phases tied to finalizing lease documentation.
