Anthropic signs first Australia data centre agreement

AI giant Anthropic signed its first data centre lease agreement ‌in Australia, two people familiar with the deal said, capitalising on a favourable political environment and abundant renewable resources to secure capacity at what would be one of the world's largest computing facilities.

The lease covers a data centre campus with ​planned capacity totalling 2.16 gigawatts, one of the people said, on par with some of the ​largest centres currently operating worldwide. The proposed facility on farmland about 250 km (150 miles) ⁠from Brisbane is planned to start coming online in 2027, the people said.

The deal makes Anthropic the ​latest AI heavyweight to secure a foothold in Australia following an offtake agreement OpenAI struck for a Sydney ​data centre last year, as firms race to lock in power and land in a country pitched as a low-cost, renewable energy-rich alternative to more congested markets in the U.S. and Asia.


It comes after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei last week called on AI companies to slow the rate at which they advance model capabilities amid mounting fears of misuse of artificial intelligence, a call backed by Elon Musk, who runs rival xAI, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. U.S. President Donald ‌Trump ⁠described critics of AI as "very negative forces" who were bringing up scenarios that will not happen.