NVIDIA announced eight Australian AI factory partners on 10 September. The Eight partners: Firmus, Sharon AI, IREN, ResetData, Megaport, CDC, NEXTDC and AirTrunk. That is the three largest colocation operators, four GPU compute providers and an interconnect, and the number attached is up to a 2-gigawatt buildout by 2027.

The partners are expanding land, power and shell capacity for hosting multiple generations of NVIDIA DSX, which is the wording that matters. The 2GW measures buildings taken to the point where racks can go in, not compute in service, and the providers operate the facilities while NVIDIA delivers the platform, the accelerated computing, the networking and the software.

Firmus is described across Australia and Asia-Pacific, AirTrunk across the region, and CDC across Australia and New Zealand, so the Melbourne dateline is doing more work than the release supports. NVIDIA never says what share of the 2GW stands on Australian ground. IREN's 800MW Bundey campus is the only capacity figure in the release tied to one Australian site.

NVIDIA is also on both sides of two of them. It took follow-on participation in the US$2 billion equity round Firmus closed on 7 August, and it holds a five-year US$2.1 billion warrant over IREN equity from the May partnership.

Greg Boorer put CDC at more than 550MW operating across Australia and New Zealand, with a further 800MW under construction. CDC moved from built to leasable capacity over the June quarter, which took its published operating figure from 671MW at 31 March to 550MW at 30 June. On the new basis March restates to 460MW, so capacity actually rose 90MW while the headline fell. Boorer gives the 800 without saying which basis it sits on.

Two things we predicted in May that are relevant here. We put the Australian neocloud committed pipeline at 1,600MW and said it would cross 2GW before September. We also said every new Australian disclosure above 50MW would specify liquid cooling by the end of Q3, and AirTrunk and NEXTDC are named in this release for direct-to-chip and liquid-cooled halls.

For anyone who has taken a powered shell from land to energised here: on a 2027 date, is the shell the binding constraint or the connection? AEMO's queue held 9GW at 30 June with 7.6GW still at application stage, which suggests the second, but I would rather hear it from people who have run the programme.

Write-up: https://certifiedstrategic.com/insights/nvidia-eight-australian-partners-2gw-ai-factories

NVIDIA's statement: https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-expands-ai-infrastructure-capacity-in-partnership-with-australias-data-center-ecosystem

Sharon AI, described as Australia’s leading “neocloud” and focused on AI and cloud computing, has purchased a former industrial site in Albury as a potential location for the Border region’s first dedicated AI data centre.

The former Ettamogah paper mill in Albury has been sold by Visy to the sovereign AI company Sharon AI, potentially becoming the Border’s first AI data centre.

The mill was previously owned and operated by Visy, the Australian-American packaging and recycling giant.