Anthropic signs deal for Australia data centre

Anthropic has signed a deal for its first Australian data centre, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli announced in parliament on Wednesday.

Crisafulli said the company behind the Claude large-language model would set up in a new digital park expected to open next year. He said the agreement would bring more jobs and electricity to Queensland and would respect the community.

Anthropic could not immediately be reached for comment.

The company will lease a data centre at the Western Downs Digital Park. Plans for the site show four buildings, each with 36,000 square metres of data-centre floor space.

Developer Zerra DC has said in planning documents that the project will not compete with the community for water because it will use primarily air-cooled technology. The documents say the Western Downs region is a major contributor to energy generation in Queensland and produces an energy surplus.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last month that the national government would seek laws setting minimum national standards for water and energy use by data centres, as well as rules to reduce their impact on communities by locating them away from homes, schools, prime farmland and potential housing sites.

Anthropic has lobbied Australian officials to change copyright laws to assist in training AI models, prompting criticism from media companies, musicians and other creators.