Anthropic has signed a long-term lease at Queensland's Western Downs Digital Park for its first data center in Australia, a 2.16GW campus that would rank as the country's largest such facility1,2,5,7. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli announced the deal in the state's Parliament on September 16, calling it a "major win" for jobs and energy in the region4,6.
Macquarie Capital will partner with Singapore-based Zerra DC to build the campus near Dalby, roughly 150 miles northwest of Brisbane. The project's reported cost varies across sources, with figures ranging from $30 billion to $32 billion. Anthropic aims to begin using the facility in 2027, though the development application was filed with the local council only last month.
Scale and design
Planning documents describe four buildings, each with 36,000 square metres of data center floor space, on a site of about 725 hectares. The campus's power draw would be comparable to approximately 1.5 million average Australian households. Zerra DC said in planning documents that the project will use primarily air-cooled technology, avoiding competition with the community for water. The Queensland government said the digital park would not require new transmission infrastructure and that the Western Downs region is already a surplus energy producer.
The lease is subject to approval from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board. The full facility is expected to take four to six years to build.
Policy and political context
Crisafulli said the deal would add energy to the grid and "respect the community," framing it against public concern over a boom in AI data center construction across Australia. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in August that the national government will seek to pass laws mandating minimum standards for water and energy use by data centers, along with rules to locate them away from homes, schools, prime farmland, and potential housing sites.
Separately, Anthropic has lobbied Australian officials to change copyright laws to assist in training AI models.
Western Downs Mayor Andrew Smith said talk of around 1,000 jobs would bring opportunities to the region. Crisafulli said the project was a direct result of his recent trade mission to the United States.
ANALYSIS The air-cooled design and surplus-energy location appear calibrated to preempt the regulatory framework Albanese has signaled, positioning the project ahead of forthcoming national data center standards.