Artificial intelligence company Anthropic plans to build a 725.5 hectares (78 million square foot) data center on a former feedlot in the Australian state of Queensland, reports The Guardian.
The state premier, David Crisafulli, announced in parliament on September 16 that Anthropic would buy into the first stage of the proposed Western Downs digital park, planned to be opened in 2027 by Singapore-based data center builder, Zerra DC, at a cost of AUS$32 billion ($22.8 billion), according to the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC). It has yet to be approved by the local council.
The project will connect to the Braemar power station. In July this year, Queensland, along with the Northern Territory, rejected the federal government’s plans to mandate that AI data centers use renewable power. The Queensland state government claims to have won a carve-out from a national deal, allowing it to use the state’s coal generators to power data centers.
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The project, with an estimated power draw comparable to 1.5 million average Australian households, is expected to be built in four stages, according to documents filed with the Western Downs regional council in August. It has yet to be approved by the local council.
The ABC report said it understands Anthropic would use the site to power its artificial intelligence program Claude to answer user questions, rather than for training AI models.
