At a glance
CDC Data Centres will not build the 1.6GW Project Southgate rollout it announced with Firmus and NVIDIA in October 2025, the Financial Review reported on 6 October 2026.
About 42MW was deployed, all at the CDC Melbourne hall where Firmus runs 18,400 NVIDIA GB300 chips for Meta.
CDC chief executive Greg Boorer said Firmus "made other choices regarding doing their own data centre developments".
Firmus's own Australian sites, about 430MW in northern Tasmania and 2.7GW planned in South Australia, sit outside the CDC agreement.
The change comes in the week Firmus takes bids for its A$7.1 billion ASX float, with trading due to start on 23 October.
CDC Data Centres is ending the national rollout it agreed with Firmus a year ago under Project Southgate, the AFR reported on 6 October 2026. The plan, announced with NVIDIA in October 2025, was to build up to 1.6GW of AI computing capacity on CDC infrastructure by 2028. About 42MW was deployed. Firmus will stay in the CDC hall in Melbourne where its first mainland AI factory runs, but will not expand that site to the 150MW first planned.
Since June, Firmus has announced a campus on Batam in Indonesia, two campuses in South Australia and two sites in Malaysia for OpenAI, and won approval for 288MW at Bell Bay in Tasmania, none of them on CDC infrastructure. The CDC rollout ends at one Melbourne site, while the Australian capacity Firmus plans sits on its own land in Tasmania and South Australia, and its next large builds are in Indonesia and Malaysia.
The October 2025 plan put 1.6GW on CDC infrastructure by 2028
Firmus, CDC and NVIDIA announced the expansion of Project Southgate on 16 October 2025. Firmus's release said CDC "will provide the critical, sovereign digital infrastructure for Project Southgate", and CDC's release quoted Boorer: "CDC is proud to provide the data centre infrastructure for Project Southgate." The plan named Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT, a first stage of 150MW across Tasmania and Melbourne by mid-2026, A$4.5 billion of first-stage investment and A$73.3 billion to 2028. NVIDIA signed up as an anchor customer.
Boorer told the business news site Rampart that the two companies will no longer build the rollout together. "We're certainly not planning on doing 1.6 gigawatts of rollout with them because they made other choices regarding doing their own data centre developments, which is slightly different to what we envisaged," he said. The Financial Review reported that Boorer told one of its Chanticleer lunches in September the companies were going their separate ways because of Firmus's expansion in Asia, and that CDC was "misaligned" with Firmus on its Australian plan, including its Tasmanian sites.
Firmus's Melbourne AI factory stays inside CDC's Brooklyn campus
The Melbourne cluster is the one part of the CDC rollout that was built. Firmus contracted about 18,400 NVIDIA GB300 chips for the site in March 2026 and said on 27 August that a customer was running AI models on it. On 29 September Firmus named Meta as the customer running NVIDIA GB300 systems in Melbourne, in a release that also set out agreements with Meta for capacity in Southeast Asia.
The Financial Review reported on 30 June that Meta has the right to acquire Firmus's compute capacity at any or all of its Australian sites. With the Melbourne hall staying at its current size, further Australian capacity for Meta would come from Firmus's own sites.
Firmus's own Australian sites total about 430MW in Tasmania and 2.7GW planned in South Australia
Firmus has developed its Tasmanian sites itself from the start. The City of Launceston endorsed its 90MW St Leonards site on 1 September 2025, six weeks before the CDC expansion was announced, and George Town Council approved 288MW at Bell Bay on 25 August 2026. In South Australia, Firmus signed a 12-year, 600MW electricity supply agreement with commodities trader Gunvor in June for campuses at Tailem Bend and Stirling North.
Site | Capacity | Status |
|---|---|---|
Melbourne, CDC Brooklyn campus | About 42MW deployed | Operating |
St Leonards, Launceston | 90MW, 44MW in the first stage | Due to start operating in early 2027 |
Bell Bay, northern Tasmania | 288MW | Approved 25 August 2026; appeals lodged with the state tribunal |
Wesley Vale, northern Tasmania | About 52MW, from a first stage of about 26MW | Awaiting a planning decision |
Tailem Bend and Stirling North, South Australia | 2.7GW planned | 600MW, 12-year power supply agreed with Gunvor |
Source: Australian Financial Review, 6 October 2026; Firmus Project Southgate FAQs; City of Launceston; George Town Council; Firmus and Gunvor releases, June 2026.
Firmus told Tasmania's parliamentary inquiry it expects to contract about 444MW of electricity across its three Tasmanian sites once they are fully built, and has asked Hydro Tasmania for a long-term 450MW supply contract. It agreed in August to buy Benmax for A$300 million, bringing the manufacture of its HyperCube modules in-house at Queanbeyan in New South Wales.
Batam and Malaysia carry Firmus's next two years of builds
Firmus and data centre developer DayOne are building a 360MW campus on Batam, sized for up to 170,000 NVIDIA GPUs and due to operate from the first quarter of 2027. On 8 September Firmus signed OpenAI as anchor customer for two Malaysian AI factories and put its contracted capacity above 900MW. It counts seven AI factories in four countries, two of them operating, in Australia and Singapore, and has not listed the other five.
NVIDIA is Firmus's chip supplier, a shareholder and one of its earliest customers. The Financial Review reported that NVIDIA encouraged the expansion across Asia and part-funded it, and that the Indonesian and Malaysian projects carry the bulk of the near-term earnings projected for the float. Firmus has priced the float at A$11 a share, valuing the company at about A$44 billion.
CDC's own pipeline runs to a 1.4GW campus at Wagga Wagga
CDC's independent valuation rose to A$18.5 billion in July, with contracted capacity above 1GW and a leasable pipeline of 3.9GW out to FY40, Infratil reported. In September CDC set out plans for a 1.4GW, A$15 billion campus near Wagga Wagga in the NSW Riverina, and on 29 September the ACT approved its 84MW Beard 2 building in Canberra.
What to watch
The prospectus. Firmus is reported to be lodging it on 8 October. It is expected to set out which sites make up the five AI factories under development and whether Project Southgate remains the name for the Australian programme.
The float. Bids from large investors close on 9 October, and trading on the ASX is due to start on 23 October.
Hydro Tasmania. The state-owned generator expects to decide by the end of 2026 on Firmus's request for a 450MW supply contract covering its three Tasmanian sites.
St Leonards. Firmus's first owned Australian AI factory is due to start operating in early 2027.