Anthropic signs deal for a giant Queensland data centre

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli told the state parliament on September 16 that Anthropic has signed a deal to use the Western Downs Digital Park. It is the company's first data centre deal in Australia. Singapore-based Zerra DC will build the facility on about 725 hectares near Dalby. The project is valued at 32 billion Australian dollars and is the largest data centre proposed in the country.

According to ABC, Anthropic will use the site to generate answers to Claude users' questions, and no model training will happen there. That work is called inference. The company aims to start using the facility in 2027. The development application only went to the council in August, and construction is expected to take four to six years. The Western Downs mayor said the deal is not final yet because the application is still under review.

The facility's power draw is comparable to about 1.5 million Australian households. Crisafulli presented it as a win that will bring jobs, add energy to the grid and lower power prices. ABC reports that Anthropic will pay the cost of connecting to the grid. Federal MP David Littleproud said power reliability and cost for existing homes, farmers and businesses cannot be sacrificed for the project. The group Save Our Darling Downs is also concerned about its energy use. Zerra DC's planning documents say the site will be fully air-cooled and use 16.5 kilolitres of water a day in operation.

Anthropic's annualized revenue reached $65 billion at the end of July, and the company expects a second profitable quarter in a row. As usage grows, so does the need for servers that generate answers, and this deal puts part of that capacity in Australia. In Australia, the load that data centres put on the power grid is a point of dispute between supporters and opponents.