While claiming "AI slowdown" is happening, Anthropic is expanding its computing power by signing Australia's first data center lease.

Just last weekend, after calling on AI companies to slow down the improvement of model capabilities, Anthropic turned around and increased its investment in AI infrastructure, signing its first data center lease in Australia.

On September 16, Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the matter, reported that Anthropic had signed a lease with Singapore-based data center developer Zerra DC. The project is located on agricultural land approximately 250 kilometers west of Brisbane and has a planned total capacity of 2.16 gigawatts, making it close to the size of the world's largest data center.

This transaction signifies that Anthropic, following OpenAI, is also beginning to deploy AI infrastructure in Australia. Abundant renewable energy, relatively low land costs, and a market environment with significant room for expansion are attracting more and more AI companies to include Australia in their computing power deployment. Economists predict that by 2030, total investment in Australian data centers could reach AUD 150 billion.

It's worth noting that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly called on AI companies last weekend to slow down the improvement of model capabilities, citing concerns about the risk of artificial intelligence being misused. This view was publicly supported by xAI CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. This Australian data center deployment has also brought Anthropic's computing power expansion back into the spotlight.

2.16 The Giva campus was established in Queensland, primarily for AI inference.

According to Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter, Zerra DC will be responsible for procuring renewable energy power purchase agreements and covering grid connection costs, without passing these costs on to existing users. The project is scheduled to begin phased commissioning in 2027.

The facility will employ a closed-loop air-cooling system, which, compared to traditional liquid cooling solutions, reduces the consumption of clean water resources for server heat dissipation. The report, citing sources familiar with the matter, states that the data center will primarily be used for AI inference—that is, providing real-time computation for user requests after the model has been trained—rather than for model training itself.

Australia is emerging as a new market for AI companies vying for computing resources. OpenAI has already signed a power purchase agreement for a data center in Sydney. As major markets in the US and Asia face constraints on land, electricity, and grid connection resources, Australia's renewable energy conditions and market expansion potential are beginning to attract the attention of AI infrastructure investors.

However, the massive expansion of data centers has also raised concerns about land, water, and electricity consumption. The Australian government plans to further restrict data center resource use from 2027, while continuing to attract foreign investment into the sector.

The transaction is still subject to approval from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board.

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