Anthropic signs $32bn Queensland datacentre deal, rejects renewables-only rule
Anthropic will anchor a massive facility in western Queensland, which won exemption from federal rules requiring new AI datacentres to use renewable energy.
What to know
- Anthropic will anchor a $32 billion datacentre in Queensland's Western Downs, expected to open in 2027 and become Australia's largest facility of its kind.
- Queensland secured exemption from federal mandate requiring new AI datacentres to use renewable energy, allowing coal and gas power; Prime Minister approved the carve-out.
- Premier Crisafulli negotiated the deal during a US trade mission and frames it as delivering jobs and lower power prices; critics including Senator Pocock warn the broader AI-investment push sacrifices protections for creators.
- The facility will draw power equivalent to 1.5 million average Australian households and occupy ~725 hectares; Anthropic plans to use it for inference (answering user questions with Claude), not model training.
Anthropic AI company; operator of Claude LLM
David Crisafulli Queensland PremierZerra DC Singapore-based datacentre developer
Anthony Albanese Prime Minister of Australia
David Pocock Independent Australian Senator
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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Independent senator Pocock criticises proposed AI training access deal as throwing creatives 'under the bus'
Senator David Pocock opposed a separate Albanese government proposal to grant AI companies default access to Australian creatives' works, framing it as prioritising datacentre funding over creator protections.
“throw creatives under the bus…”
— David Pocock -
7 outlets Anthropic seals massive data centre deal
first by AFR, 12d ago · also ABC Australia, ABC, Sydney Morning Herald, SmartCompany, SupplyChainBrain, Brisbane Times
7 more headlines
- Major AI company Anthropic signs deal to use $32b Queensland data centre ABC Australia · 12d ago
- Anthropic to build $32 billion mega data centre in Queensland Sydney Morning Herald · 12d ago
- Anthropic lands massive Queensland data centre deal as copyright debate heats up SmartCompany · 12d ago
- Anthropic to Site Giant Data Center in Queensland SupplyChainBrain · 12d ago
- AI giant Anthropic signs agreement for $32b Queensland data centre ABC · 12d ago
- Anthropic anchors proposed $32b Queensland data centre CommercialRealEstate.com.au · 10d ago
- Anthropic inks deal for $32 billion mega data centre in Queensland SMH.com.au · 9d ago
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I am all for remote work, and I don't think the cars matter. I went to look them up because I got curious, and then seeing a bunch of warehouses with nobody around was mostly just funny. We know they're lying and vastly overestimating ongoing jobs. I don't really care to sit here and meticulously research and defend them by pointing out 'well…
2 more of the top 3 · 20 posts in this stretch
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This is big. Anthropic signing a long term lease to build a campus style data centre to be used for Claude inference (so no peaky training loads) Just outside Dalby 1400 jobs in construction Several hundred during operations $760m in economic activity for the state of Queensland It was alw...
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expected to create thousands of ongoing jobs This is absolute bullshit. Switch, Inc has 5 exoscale data centres in the US and every single one of them is larger than this. One of them is the third largest data centre on the planet and the largest outside China. Switch has 1200 employees in total. Their largest data centre only has around 50 people…
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background
Crisafulli frames exemption from renewable energy rule as 'commonsense decision' — Crisafulli credited Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with making a 'commonsense decision' to allow Queensland to 'chart its own path for power supply,' and stated that datacentre development must add energy generation to the grid and drive down power prices while protecting water supplies and respecting communities.
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background
Anthropic signs deal to lease Western Downs datacentre site in Queensland — Anthropic announced an agreement to lease a site at the proposed Western Downs Digital Park near Dalby, northwest of Toowoomba. The $32 billion facility, to be built by Singapore-based Zerra DC and connected to the Braemar power station, is expected to open in 2027 and will draw power equivalent to 1.5 million average Australian households. Crisafulli announced the deal in parliament, calling it 'a massive show of confidence in Queensland' and 'a major win that will deliver more jobs and put more energy into Queensland's grid.'
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background
Crisafulli meets Anthropic during US trade mission — During a trade mission to the US, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli met with Anthropic and outlined the state's appeal for investment, emphasizing energy security and streamlined approvals.
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Commonwealth pushes renewable energy requirement for AI datacentres; Queensland and Northern Territory reject it — The federal Labor government sought to mandate that all new data centres be anchored by new renewable energy projects. Queensland and the Northern Territory rejected this push and negotiated a carve-out allowing them to use coal and gas generators.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by Capacity, 12d ago · also Reuters, iTnews
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first by The Guardian, 12d ago · also Guardian
1 more headline
and 2 smaller pieces
What people are saying 17 voices from 2 sites · best of 20 · verbatim
- Sep 17
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*Correction - Anthropic will rent about a quarter of the site for their proposed DC
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ai datacentres don't put money in the economy, just a giant, grey, brutalist monolith to the tech gods you worship so.
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They will be getting paid up front as there is so much competition for labour/building/chips.
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The technology may stay but the problem people are having is the amount of the technology being built. A bubble burst will see that $32B drop pretty quickly.
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You don't understand what is being said. Why are you talking bout pictures and media?
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ABC are bought and paid for these days. Cant trust them much more than the other big media outlets
- Sep 16
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You realise that AI will be used to assist with all of the things you listed (not that the solar system is going to collapse any time soon, lol), right? Moderna has used AI to create a skin cancer vaccine, and that is the first of 1000s of new drugs that AI will help develop.
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Dude, it's common knowledge in tech circles that tech is obsolete within years. By the time the AI market recovers those data centres will be useless. It's not like the internet at all.
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This is very true, and it's why there is no such thing as the dotcom bust, the global financial crisis, and it's why oil trading right now is entirely sensible and in line with reality
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You can't train those LLMs locally so it'll get more and more out of date as time goes on
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Anthropic, the owner of AI model Claude, has signed a long-term lease for a $30 billion data centre project in Queensland.
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The actual processors in the datacentre have a much shorter useful life than fibre optic cabling though don’t they? Not sure how big a chunk of the overall cost they are though
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I'm sure the right wing scaremongers will start touting 'Minority Report' style predicting crime soon.
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All you guys should really play with this: https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/qld1/?range=1d&interval=30m&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed Only one state really gets to say 'I told you so' wrt fossil fuels. Props to SA.
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At least half of the time when I search for information I already know , it’s incorrect. That shows me that I really can’t trust it for topics unfamiliar to me. Do I read the AI overview sometimes? Sure. Would I prefer to turn it off and have Google be actually useful as a search engine again? Yep.
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All we are going to hear about for the rest of our lives is this arms race for global robotic supremacy and the insane amount of resources poured into it. Slow clap for humanity on this one.
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AI giant Anthropic has signed its first deal in Australia to use a $32 billion data centre hub on Queensland's Western Downs.