SYDNEY, Sept 16 (Reuters) - AI giant Anthropic signed its first data centre lease agreement in Australia, two people familiar with the deal said, capitalising on a favourable political environment and abundant renewable resources to secure capacity at what would be one of the world's largest computing facilities.
The lease covers a data centre campus with planned capacity totalling 2.16 gigawatts, one of the people said, on par with some of the largest centres currently operating worldwide. The proposed
facility on farmland about 250 km (150 miles) from Brisbane is planned to start coming online in 2027, the people said.
The deal makes Anthropic the latest AI heavyweight to secure a foothold in Australia following an offtake agreement OpenAI struck for a Sydney data centre last year, as firms race to lock in power and land in a country pitched as a low-cost, renewable energy-rich alternative to more congested markets in the U.S. and Asia.
It comes after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei last week called on AI companies to slow the rate at which they advance model capabilities amid mounting fears of misuse of artificial intelligence, a call backed by Elon Musk, who runs rival xAI, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. U.S. President Donald Trump described critics of AI as "very negative forces" who were bringing up scenarios that will not happen.
The Australian government has responded to community pushback over land, water and electricity use by promising to set restrictions from 2027 over data centre resource use, but continues to court an investment boom that economists say may total A$150 billion ($107 billion) in Australia by 2030.
Anthropic's Australian lease would be for a data centre planned by Singapore-based developer Zerra DC which would source renewable power purchase agreements and bear grid connection costs without incurring costs to existing customers, said the people who could not be named because they were not authorised to comment to the media.
Anthropic and Zerra DC declined to comment.
The facility would be used for inference - or rapid, prediction-based processing - but not training, one of the people added. Australia has said its new AI rules will set limits to use of domestically produced content for training.
The site would also use a closed-loop, air-cooled system, which reduces the need for clean water when removing heat from servers, the people said.
The deal is subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval.
($1 = 1.4039 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Byron Kaye; editing by Lincoln Feast.)
