Australian data center operator NextDC and OpenAI are building an AI-powered data centre in Sydney as the San Francisco-based owner of ChatGPT scales up its footprint in the Asia Pacific.
The partners would develop and operate a 550-megawatt next-generation hyperscale AI data center facility at NextDC’s campus in Eastern Creek, about 45 kilometers west of central Sydney, NextDC said in a statement on Friday. NextDC shares jumped as much as 11% in Sydney trading, before closing 3.1% higher.
The A$7 billion ($4.6 billion) data center to be built on a 258,000-square-meter site the of NextDC’s S7 facility, will serve OpenAI clients such as Commonwealth Bank of Australia and retail giant Wesfarmers.
Founded in 2010 by Australian tech entrepreneur Bevan Slattery, Brisbane-based NextDC has since grown to become one of the region’s biggest data center operators, with facilities in major Australian cities and building new sites in Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, and Auckland.
According to a recent investor presentation, the company needs about A$15 billion in funding over the next decade to develop mega data center projects in Sydney, which are expected to have more than 850 megawatts of capacity once completed.
Australia’s data center industry has been attracting major investors. Last year, Blackstone and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought data center company AirTrunk for A$24 billion. Global tech giants including Amazon and Microsoft are also ramping up investments in cloud and AI infrastructure down under.
It is among the region’s fastest growing data center markets, with Cushman & Wakefield forecasting the industry’s capacity would nearly triple to 3.6 gigawatts by 2030 amid surging demand for cloud computing and AI applications.
