This Month
Goodman Group enters $14b Europe data centre partnership
The ASX-listed industrial property giant is partnering with a Canadian pension fund to build four data centres throughout the continent.
The world’s AI giants are racing to lock in Australia’s big banks
From OpenAI to Anthropic, the country’s top financial institutions are trying to work out how to engage with them, and where to spend their sizeable budgets.
New DigiCo CEO appointed, targets AI boom amid energy worries
Despite explosive demand for AI computing space, DigiCo’s value has plunged with short-sellers circling. A former AirTrunk heavyweight will take the helm.
OpenAI, NextDC $7b data centre to drive green energy investment
A new data centre in western Sydney that will anchored by OpenAI will be the catalyst for renewable energy projects, says NextDC’s chief executive.
November
Google rules out Christmas Island data centre as AI race heats up
Top Google executive Bikash Koley met with Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week to lay out the company’s requirements to invest more in data centre infrastructure.
Tech giants plan blitz on laws that could block AI investment
Tech giants including Microsoft and Amazon will push for reforms to accelerate billions in AI investment as data centre spending spikes in Australia.
Commonwealth Bank’s AI-pioneering technology chief departs
CBA chief Matt Comyn has lost his tech boss, Gavin Munroe, the latest in a string of senior management exits at the country’s largest lender.
Google to build data centre on Christmas Island
The search engine giant signed a cloud deal with the Department of Defence this year to build the facility, whose details remain secret, on Christmas Island.
Iren’s $15b Microsoft mega-deal sign of an AI surge that won’t stop
Daniel Roberts, a former Macquarie banker who runs the Nasdaq-listed data centres business, says the agreement is only the first of many as demand booms.
Amazon inks $58b deal with OpenAI for Nvidia chips
The ChatGPT maker will pay Amazon Web Services for access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia graphics processing units as part of a seven-year deal.
Microsoft signs $14.8b deal with Australian data centre firm
Sydney-based Iren will provide Microsoft with data centres for artificial intelligence under a five-year deal that is expected to generate billions in revenue.
October
Amazon shares surge on better-than-expected cloud revenue
Amazon Web Services posted revenue of $50 billion, an increase of 20 per cent from the prior year and the biggest year-over-year rise since the end of 2022.
APRA warns of concentration risk as banks move to US cloud providers
The prudential regulator will ramp up supervision of lenders’ AI and IT deployment as they become more reliant on single-source suppliers of data and models.
CBA escaped the AWS crash. But what if it happens again?
CBA was not affected by the AWS outage even though it became the first Australian bank to move to a single cloud provider two weeks earlier.
Oliver Curtis’ Firmus inks $73.3b ‘AI factory’ plan with Nvidia, CDC
Firmus said the plan to build the centres, dubbed ‘AI factories’, may cost up to $73.3 billion by the time they are operational in 2028.
CBA moves its entire core banking system into Amazon’s cloud
The migration of Commonwealth Bank’s retail, business and institutional systems is an Australian first and one of the biggest moves to the cloud by any bank globally.
September
CoreWeave expands OpenAI deals to as much as $34b
The rise of neoclouds, and the rush of capital they’re receiving, has reinforced that demand for AI infrastructure remains strong among big tech.
How many data centres Australia needs and where they will go
Growing demand is creating competition in Australia’s two largest cities to host them. But each faces challenges that will shape what they can offer.
Di Pilla’s DigiCo hires ex-AirTrunk boss as data centre race heats up
HMC Capital’s David Di Pilla has hired former AirTrunk executive Michael Juniper to help lift the performance of its data centre group REIT DigiCo.
August
Short sellers squeezed as NextDC surges on AI investment plans
The data centre developer has spent a record amount on infrastructure to chase the AI boom this year. Now it’s hunting for a joint venture partner.