Anthropic secures 2.16GW Australia AI data center lease

Anthropic signed a 2.16-gigawatt Australia data center lease, people familiar said, securing AI capacity as power access shapes the sector.

The agreement is the company's first data center lease in Australia, according to two people familiar with the transaction who were not permitted to discuss it publicly. Anthropic and Singapore-based developer Zerra DC declined to comment.

Brisbane farmland, 2.16GW planned

The lease covers a proposed data center campus on farmland about 250 kilometers, or 150 miles, from Brisbane, one of the people said. The site is planned to begin operating in phases in 2027, the people said, putting the deal on a timeline that matches a wider race for AI infrastructure.

At 2.16 gigawatts of planned capacity, the campus would rank with some of the largest computing facilities now operating globally, according to one of the people. The figure matters because advanced AI services need large, steady electricity supplies as well as land that can support server halls, cooling systems and grid links.

Renewables frame Australia's pitch

The Australian lease puts Anthropic behind another large AI group that secured capacity in the country through an offtake agreement for a Sydney data center last year. AI companies have been looking for lower-cost markets with available land and renewable power as US and Asian hubs face congestion, higher power demand and tougher local approvals.

Zerra DC would source renewable power purchase agreements for the project and carry the cost of connecting the campus to the grid, the people familiar with the deal said. They said the plan would avoid passing those connection costs to existing customers, a point that could matter as communities scrutinize data centers' use of public infrastructure.

The facility would be used for inference, one of the people said, referring to the rapid processing that applies trained models to queries and tasks. It would not be used for model training, the person said, a distinction that intersects with Australia's planned AI rules on the use of domestically produced content.

Water limits meet AI demand

Australia has said it will set restrictions from 2027 on how data centers use resources including land, water and electricity. The pledge follows community resistance to large facilities, where local concerns often center on power draw, heat management and the pressure placed on scarce clean water supplies.

The proposed Anthropic site would use a closed-loop, air-cooled system, the people said. That design is intended to reduce reliance on clean water when removing heat from servers, although the project would still need power supply agreements, grid access and regulatory clearance before the planned capacity can be realized.

The deal also sits inside a political debate over the speed of AI development. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei last week urged AI companies to slow capability advances, a call backed by Elon Musk of xAI and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, while President Trump described critics of AI as "very negative forces" and dismissed scenarios he said would not happen.

FIRB review sets next test

The lease is subject to approval by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board, the people said. That review gives the government a formal checkpoint on a project tied to foreign capital, energy access and critical digital infrastructure.

If approval is granted and Zerra DC secures renewable supply on the terms described by the people, Anthropic would add long-duration inference capacity outside its main US base. The global effect would be incremental compute diversification; the company would gain room for AI services; and developers, utilities and grid operators in Australia would face stronger demand for power-linked data center projects.

If approvals slow or resource limits tighten after 2027, the macro effect would be a smaller Australian contribution to global AI infrastructure growth. Anthropic would have to adjust deployment timing or shift capacity elsewhere, while the wider sector would face a clearer test of whether renewable-rich markets can scale data centers without losing local support.