At a glance
AirTrunk's proposed 540MW data centre at Kurri Kurri in the NSW Hunter could have Anthropic as its anchor tenant, the Financial Review reported on 22 September 2026.
People briefed on Anthropic's plans told the paper nothing is formalised yet, and that the company is working on at least four Australian leases due in the coming weeks.
The A$3.7-5 billion campus reuses a former aluminium smelter site, is air-cooled, and carries a community package of more than A$37 million, with a 2028 opening reported.
Like Zerra DC's Kogan campus in Queensland, where Anthropic's first lease was reported, the site sits beside existing power generation and transmission and connects straight to the high-voltage network.
Anthropic's July tender asked for at least 1GW of Australian capacity in use by the end of 2027, preferring large, advanced projects.
Anthropic is in advanced discussions to anchor AirTrunk's proposed data centre at Kurri Kurri in the NSW Hunter, the Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column reported on 22 September 2026. The report came six days after the same paper revealed Anthropic's first Australian data centre lease, at a campus the Singapore developer Zerra DC is planning at Kogan in southern Queensland. People briefed on Anthropic's plans told the paper that no agreement has been formalised, and that the company is working on at least four Australian data centre leases to be announced in the coming weeks. Spokespeople for both companies declined to comment.
Anthropic's request for proposals, reported by the same column in July, sought at least 1.4GW of Australian capacity and wanted at least 1GW of it in use by the end of 2027, preferring developers with large, advanced projects. Both sites Anthropic has been linked to are regional campuses in established energy hubs, built beside existing power stations and transmission and connecting straight to the high-voltage network. If both proceed, the Hunter and the Western Downs gain construction work, ongoing jobs and community investment from Anthropic's Australian build.
AirTrunk's Hunter campus is designed for 540MW
The NSW planning portal lists the project as a state significant development, SSD-128819490, for a data centre with a total power consumption of 540MW on the former Hydro Aluminium smelter site at Loxford, in Cessnock City. Aluminium was smelted there until around 2012, and property developers McCloy Group and Stevens Group bought the land in 2020, trade publication DCD reported. The portal records the application at the stage of preparing its environmental impact statement, which the Newcastle Herald reported on 16 September would go on public exhibition in the coming days.
AirTrunk's project page describes a two-storey building of 44,220 square metres, cooled by air so that it "won't use community water for cooling", and says the company will fund the full cost of the grid connection and a new substation on site, beside an existing 132kV line. The Newcastle Herald has put the project's value at between A$3.7 billion and A$5 billion and its opening in 2028, drawing 70 to 75 per cent of its power from clean sources at first and 90 to 100 per cent by 2030.
AirTrunk has offered a community package of more than A$37 million, including more than A$12 million toward the Loxford District Sporting Facility and a community battery that would take A$200 a year off eligible nearby households' power bills. It puts ongoing data centre jobs at 350.
Both sites are in established energy hubs
Kurri Kurri's neighbour is Snowy Hydro's Kurri Kurri Power Station, which is being commissioned and will initially supply 660MW of firm, on-demand power to the grid. The Hunter is also one of the NSW renewable energy zones where the state is planning new generation and transmission, and AirTrunk's energy lead Sabooh Whitelaw told the Newcastle Herald in August that the zone "is going to bring in a heap of new energy and transmission". AirTrunk was then in commercial negotiations with two or three renewable developers in the region.
Zerra filed the Kogan application with Western Downs Regional Council on 17 August 2026. A Zerra spokesperson told the ABC the campus would be well positioned among existing energy infrastructure, and would connect directly to the substation rather than through the local distribution network. Kurri Kurri's 540MW is a little over a third of Kogan's 1.44GW.
Measure | Zerra DC, Kogan (Qld) | AirTrunk, Kurri Kurri (NSW) |
|---|---|---|
Capacity | 1.44GW in the application, four buildings | 540MW |
Next to | Power stations, a solar farm, transmission lines | Snowy Hydro's Kurri Kurri Power Station, Hunter renewable energy zone |
Grid | Direct connection to a substation | New on-site substation, funded by AirTrunk |
Approval | Western Downs Regional Council assessing | State significant development, impact statement in preparation |
Opening | 2027 if approved (Financial Review) | 2028 (Newcastle Herald) |
Source: Australian Financial Review, ABC, NSW Planning Portal, AirTrunk, Newcastle Herald, Snowy Hydro, September 2026.
Both take large-scale AI investment beyond the western Sydney and Melbourne corridors where most data centres in Australia are built, and both state governments have been in direct contact with Anthropic this year. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli met the company in California, the Courier Mail reported on 3 September, and an Infrastructure NSW email from 18 March records Anthropic's chief executive, Dario Amodei, asking to discuss up to 5GW of capacity in NSW outside Sydney.
Anthropic is building an Australian portfolio
The Financial Review reported on 16 September that Kogan could start operating in 2027 once it receives development approval, and the Newcastle Herald has reported a 2028 opening for Kurri Kurri. Together the two campuses are designed for 1.98GW of capacity.
The Financial Review's sources put the number of leases in play at four or more, with Kogan signed and Kurri Kurri in advanced talks. CDC Data Centres was reported in late June as front-runner in a separate process for 300 to 500MW, which ran alongside the 1.4GW tender. Outside Australia, CNBC reported on 18 September that Anthropic is also sounding out deals of 20 to 30MW in the United Kingdom and the Nordics.
Kogan is planned for running Anthropic's models
The Financial Review ties the Kogan lease to inference, the work an AI data centre does when answering users' questions and driving agents with a model that has already been trained, and reported on 16 September that this keeps the site clear of the debate over training AI on Australian copyrighted material. Anthropic told a parliamentary committee on AI that it wanted "legal certainty" over Australia's copyright regime before making major investments in local data centres and AI development, the condition a Treasury brief released in July also records.
What to watch
The Kurri Kurri impact statement. Its exhibition will set out the campus's power supply and construction timetable in detail, and the NSW Government's assessment follows.
The remaining leases. The Financial Review's sources expect at least four Australian announcements in the coming weeks. No capacity figure has been reported for the Kogan lease, and a signed Kurri Kurri agreement would show how much of the 540MW Anthropic takes.
The Hunter power contracts. AirTrunk's supply agreements with renewable developers in the region will show how the campus reaches 70 to 75 per cent clean power at opening.