Vocus plans $343 million Sydney-Melbourne fibre link to meet AI demand

Macquarie-backed Vocus plans to invest around A$500 million ($343.50 million) to build a fibre network route between Sydney and Melbourne to meet the rising AI-driven data centre demand, the company said on Tuesday.

The route, which Vocus said will ‌be ⁠the country's ⁠first ducted long-haul network, will be ready by 2029 and create more than 1,000 jobs. Ducted networks carry fragile underground cables in protective conduits.

The Sydney-Melbourne corridor currently carries roughly 40% of Australia's long-haul data traffic and is ​expected to be undersupplied in the ⁠near future ‌without new investment, Vocus said. Companies worldwide are ​pouring ​billions into developing infrastructure capable of handling ⁠the rapid growth in data centres. Spending by ​Big Tech firms on AI infrastructure ​is set to top $700 billion in 2026, up from around $600 billion previously.


"Australia, like many countries in the world, currently lacks sufficient terrestrial and subsea networks to enable existing and future AI workloads," said ‌Andres Irlando, Vocus chief executive.

Vocus will make the investment through its flagship multi-year initiative, the ​Australian Digital ​Infrastructure Platform, and ⁠will deploy ducted technology typically used by AI and cloud providers in North America and Europe. The company is ​also backed by pension fund Aware Super, and in 2025, it completed its acquisition of TPG Telecom's fibre and fixed network infrastructure assets for A$5.25 billion.

($1 = 1.4556 Australian dollars)