At a glance
AFR Street Talk reports Anthropic issued a confidential tender for at least 1.4GW of Australian data centre capacity, a build it puts at up to US$15 billion (about A$21.6 billion).
The figure is a step up from the 300 to 500MW Street Talk reported in late May, and Anthropic’s base case is a single long-term partner for a 1.4GW-plus campus.
The tender landed with CDC Data Centres, AirTrunk, NEXTDC, IREN and Stack, with a decision reported to be at least six weeks away as of early July.
Anthropic is reported to be leaning toward splitting the award across four or five contracts, with CDC expected to take the largest share at roughly 500MW.
The tender’s own checklist puts financing first, a pointed opening given Anthropic is rated below investment grade while the winning operators would need to raise US$12 billion to US$15 billion.
Anthropic has put a far larger number on its Australian build
Anthropic is seeking at least 1.4GW of Australian data centre capacity. A confidential request for proposal obtained by the Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column, reported on 5 July 2026, puts the build cost at up to US$15 billion (about A$21.6 billion) and sets a target of having at least 1GW in use by the end of 2027.
That is several times the number last on the public record. In late May, the same column reported Anthropic running a process for 300 to 500MW, which we covered as the company’s shift from a National AI Plan memorandum into active procurement. The disclosed ask has moved from a single large lease to a gigawatt-scale campus programme in the space of six weeks.
According to the tender, Anthropic’s base case is to find one long-term partner able to build a 1.4GW-plus campus, and the company says it is willing to share development risk. Street Talk quotes the document anticipating a “likely outcome” in which Anthropic selects a partner that does not already hold a fully developed site, then jointly identifies and develops one. The request went to CDC Data Centres, AirTrunk, NEXTDC, IREN and Stack, among others. Initial proposals were due at the end of March, and a shorter list was invited to on-site meetings in Canberra in early April, coinciding with Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei’s visit to meet Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
What Anthropic asked operators to prove
The tender sets out an 11-point checklist. Its ordering is the tell: financing sits at the top, ahead of land, track record or power.
What the RFP sought | Detail reported by Street Talk |
Financial capability | How a landlord would secure the US$12 billion to US$15 billion in debt and equity, and how the financing would be underwritten given Anthropic is rated below investment grade |
Land bank | Whether the applicant can house four or more buildings on land that is not in a residential area or backing onto a school |
Track record | One-page summaries of every Australian data centre the applicant has built above 200MW, with development timelines, data hall power density and energy details |
Energy for large loads | How the applicant met the energy needs of projects above 300MW, prioritising on-premises generation or co-development with independent power producers |
Delivery capacity | Organisational charts naming design and construction leaders, plus evidence of pipeline and supply-chain capacity to deliver at scale alongside existing commitments |
Commercial structure | Preferred and alternative structures, including pricing lock-in across multiple handovers over a multi-year period |
Security and government affairs | Assurances on security and government-affairs expertise |
Source: AFR Street Talk, 5 July 2026.
The checklist reads as a test of who can finance and power a gigawatt-scale build. The request for on-premises generation or independent power producer arrangements on projects above 300MW points the same way: Anthropic wants operators to bring firm, contracted power to the table.
A split is the reported outcome, with CDC first
As of early July, Anthropic was reported to be at least six weeks from a decision, and to be leaning toward splitting the work across four or five contracts rather than signing a single landlord as its base case had envisaged. On that path, Infratil-owned CDC Data Centres is reported to be in line for the largest share at roughly 500MW.
CDC is the reference point at the contracted end of the Australian market. Its independent valuation rose 23.6 per cent to A$18.5 billion in the June quarter as its contracted capacity passed 1GW, and in April it secured a Baa2 investment-grade rating from Moody’s, which cited more than 90 per cent of revenue from investment-grade customers. A large Anthropic contract would sit alongside that book as a new type of counterparty, which is why the tender’s financing question matters to the winners as much as to Anthropic.
The rest of the field brings distinct assets. AirTrunk and NEXTDC are established hyperscale platforms with large Australian operating fleets. IREN has a transmission-connected 800MW campus at Bundey in South Australia, energising from 2028, which speaks to the tender’s emphasis on secured power, though that timeline sits beyond Anthropic’s end-2027 target. Stack, a US-headquartered hyperscale data centre developer, rounds out the named field. The open question across the field is which of these operators can finance and power the build.
Financing and power are the gating items
Two constraints decide this contract: financing and power.
Take financing first. Anthropic was valued at US$965 billion in its Series H raising in May, ahead of OpenAI, and both companies are working toward public listings. It remains below investment grade according to credit agencies, and the tender opens by asking operators how they would raise and underwrite US$12 billion to US$15 billion against it. For the operators, the live question is how a multi-billion-dollar build gets financed when the offtaker cannot yet carry an investment-grade rating. That is a structuring problem, and it is the one Anthropic has put first.
Then power. Securing firm supply is now a harder constraint in Australia than land or capital, and the tender’s preference for on-premises generation or independent power producer deals on loads above 300MW reflects it. AEMO has disclosed 5.4GW of data centre load seeking grid connection, with connection lead times now measured in years. A 1.4GW campus targeting 1GW live by the end of 2027 needs power that is already contracted, which favours operators who hold connection agreements or firming deals today.
What this means for Australian operators
The tender converts a year of Anthropic signals into a defined, near-term contract. The company opened a Sydney office, signed the National AI Plan memorandum, took on an early Australian Government customer in the Fair Work Commission, and briefly extended its Mythos model to Australian companies before the US barred foreign sales. The 1.4GW tender is the capacity commitment those moves pointed toward.
If the award splits four or five ways, it seeds contracted AI load across several Australian operators at once rather than concentrating it in one campus. That is a larger footprint for the local market than the single-lease base case would have delivered, and it lands as demand for capacity that is financed, powered and built here.
What to watch: the decision, reported to be at least six weeks out as of early July; whether Anthropic holds to a split or reverts to a single partner; the size of CDC’s reported share and how it is financed; and which operators can show the firm power that projects above 300MW now require.