Anthropic has signed its initial data centre lease deal in Australia, according to two people with knowledge of the transaction, reported Reuters.
The lease agreement has been signed for a planned facility with 2.16GW of capacity.
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This proposed site is located on farmland approximately 250km from Brisbane and is scheduled to begin operations in 2027.
The agreement comes during a period of significant activity in Australia’s data centre sector, as companies seek out markets with abundant renewable energy and fewer supply constraints compared to parts of the US and Asia.
Last year, OpenAI secured a data centre offtake agreement in Sydney, further underscoring the increasing interest from AI firms in the region.
The new Australian campus is being developed by Singapore-based Zerra DC, with the developer set to arrange renewable power purchase deals and manage grid connection expenses, according to the people.
They stated that these costs would not be passed on to existing customers. Both Anthropic and Zerra DC declined to comment when contacted.
Powering the site with renewable energy has been described as a major attraction for operators seeking to reduce their carbon footprint.
The data centre aims to use a closed-loop, air-cooled system designed to minimise clean water usage for heat removal from servers.
It is planned for inference workloads, which involve rapid, prediction-based processing, but not for training AI models.
The Australian government has announced plans to introduce restrictions on data centre resource use from 2027 in response to concerns about land, water, and electricity consumption.
However, it continues to seek data centre investment, which some economists estimate could amount to A$150bn ($107bn) by 2030.
Recent calls for caution in AI development have emerged, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urging a slowdown in model capability advancements.
Australia’s government has also indicated plans to limit the use of domestically produced content in AI training under its new AI rules.
Last month, Anthropic, Macquarie Asset Management and GIC announced a new strategic initiative to develop, operate, and lease data centre infrastructure at scale through a new platform, Theseus Infrastructure.
