Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company known for its large language model Claude, has secured a lease for its first Australian datacentre site in western Queensland. Announced by David Crisafulli in parliament on Wednesday, the $31.9bn datacentre is set to become the largest of its kind in the country.
The datacentre will be part of the proposed Western Downs digital park, developed by Singapore-based Zerra DC near Dalby, north-west of Toowoomba. This facility will connect to the Braemar power station, with the first stage expected to open next year. The project, planned in four stages, is still awaiting approval from the local council.
Crisafulli highlighted the significance of Anthropic's investment, describing it as a major win for Queensland. He emphasized that the project would bring more jobs and enhance the state's energy grid. During a trade mission, Crisafulli met with Anthropic and presented Queensland as an ideal investment location due to its energy security and efficient approval processes.
Western Downs mayor, Andrew Smith, stated that the council would conduct a thorough assessment of the proposed centre. The timeline for this process will depend on various factors, including referral requirements and community involvement during public notification.
In July, Queensland, alongside the Northern Territory, rejected a commonwealth proposal mandating new AI centres to use renewable energy. The state government claims to have negotiated an exemption, allowing the use of coal generators for power. Crisafulli praised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for making a commonsense decision, enabling Queensland to determine its own power supply strategy.
Crisafulli also stressed the importance of datacentre development contributing to energy generation, reducing power prices, and protecting local water supplies. He assured that community input would be valued, similar to projects involving wind, solar, and battery technologies.
The Queensland datacentre will primarily focus on powering inference tasks, such as answering questions, rather than training Anthropic's AI model. Earlier this year, Anthropic signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the commonwealth government. Meanwhile, the Albanese administration is considering a proposal to grant AI companies default access to Australian creatives' works, a move criticized by independent senator David Pocock as detrimental to creatives.
Amid growing concerns about artificial intelligence, Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, has reiterated calls for a slowdown in AI development.
