At a glance
Eight Australian operators and compute providers will expand land, power and shell capacity for NVIDIA AI factories, up to 2 gigawatts of it by 2027.
Land, power and shells are what the ceiling counts, so it measures buildings made ready to take racks before the chips arrive.
NVIDIA took follow-on participation in Firmus's US$2 billion equity round in August and holds a five-year US$2.1 billion warrant over IREN equity, so it sits on both sides of two of the eight.
Greg Boorer put CDC at more than 550 megawatts operating across Australia and New Zealand, with a further 800 megawatts under construction.
Sharon AI is named for up to 68,000 GPUs, an undated ceiling above the 64,000 by mid-2027 it has published since 4 August.
NVIDIA published a statement naming eight companies in the Australian market it will work with to expand capacity for AI factories, the buildings fitted out to run large clusters of its chips. The statement is datelined Melbourne and dated 9 September, and it crossed the wire at 20:00 US Eastern, which is 10:00 AEST on 10 September.
The 2 gigawatts sits on land, power and shell capacity for hosting multiple generations of NVIDIA DSX, and three of the eight describe programmes that run past Australia. Both qualifications are in NVIDIA's own wording. For an Australian reader they change what the number promises: land, substations and empty halls by 2027, on a geography NVIDIA has left open.
The eight are Firmus, Sharon AI, IREN, ResetData, Megaport, CDC, NEXTDC and AirTrunk. That takes in the three largest colocation operators in the country, four companies that sell GPU computing and one interconnect provider.
The release counts land, power and shells
A powered shell is a building with grid supply and cooling brought to the floor and the racks still to arrive, so the ceiling measures readiness at whatever point the chips turn up.
DSX is NVIDIA's full-stack AI data centre platform, covering facilities infrastructure, accelerated computing, networking, software and reference designs. The release puts the division of labour plainly: the participating providers will operate the AI factories, with NVIDIA delivering "the DSX platform, accelerated computing, networking, software and ecosystem support".
The partner carries the capital cost of the shell, and the accelerated computing and networking that go inside it are NVIDIA's sale. Firmus and IREN were both named in the cloud-partner list of the DSX launch release.
Firmus, AirTrunk and CDC describe programmes beyond Australia
Firmus is extending Project Southgate, which the release places "across Australia and Asia-Pacific". AirTrunk is expanding AI-ready powered shells with direct-to-chip liquid cooling "across the region". CDC is described across Australia and New Zealand, and Boorer's capacity figures carry the same scope.
NVIDIA leaves the Australian share of the ceiling unstated, and the Melbourne dateline invites the reader to assume all of it. IREN's 800MW Bundey campus is the only capacity figure in the release tied to a single Australian site.
NVIDIA holds equity in Firmus and a warrant over IREN
NVIDIA took follow-on participation in the US$2 billion equity round Firmus closed on 7 August, at a post-money valuation above US$10.5 billion. It holds a five-year US$2.1 billion warrant over IREN equity, taken under the partnership announced on 7 May to support the deployment of up to 5 gigawatts of NVIDIA-aligned compute, which named a campus in Texas.
NVIDIA is a shareholder in one of the eight companies it is here named as supplying, and holds an option over a second. IREN is applying the DSX reference architecture across its development portfolio and brings its delivery and operating experience to Bundey, the 800MW South Australian campus it has targeted for energisation from 2028.
Several of the eight are also each other's tenants. Firmus's Melbourne cluster runs inside a CDC building and CDC supplies the physical infrastructure for Project Southgate, though the three Tasmanian sites Firmus is developing are its own builds. Sharon AI runs its Supercluster at NEXTDC M3 in Melbourne. ResetData holds an initial 7MW allocation at CDC, with its operating AI factory in a Centuria tower in Melbourne's Docklands and its chips funded through an A$165 million Macquarie Bank facility.
CDC's 800 megawatts and Sharon AI's 68,000 GPUs
Greg Boorer, CDC founder and chief executive, is quoted putting the company at more than 550 megawatts operating across Australia and New Zealand, with a further 800 megawatts under construction and additional growth planned. CDC moved from built to leasable capacity over the June quarter, which took the published operating figure from 671MW at 31 March to 550MW at 30 June. On the new basis March restates to 460MW, so capacity rose 90MW over the quarter while the headline fell. Boorer gives the 800 megawatts here without saying which of the two bases it sits on, and it spans Australia and New Zealand together.
Sharon AI is named for up to 68,000 NVIDIA GPUs on Quantum InfiniBand and Spectrum-X Ethernet networking, using the DSX platform. Its own published figure has climbed all year: more than 55,000 in June, when its six-year compute collaboration with NVIDIA covered 72MW and up to 40,000 GB300 processors, more than 62,000 in July, and 64,000 by mid-2027 as at 4 August alongside 212MW secured company-wide.
Partner | Named in the release for | Capacity on the record |
|---|---|---|
Firmus, GPU compute | Project Southgate across Australia and Asia-Pacific | 1.6GW target for 2028, more than 900MW committed at 8 September |
IREN, GPU compute | DSX reference architecture across its portfolio | Bundey 800MW, energisation targeted from 2028 |
Sharon AI, GPU compute | Up to 68,000 GPUs on InfiniBand and Spectrum-X | 212MW secured company-wide, sites undisclosed |
ResetData, GPU compute | Accelerated computing for enterprise, government and research | 7MW allocation at CDC, about 2.85MW deployed across three sites |
CDC, colocation | AI-ready infrastructure and direct liquid-to-chip cooling | More than 550MW operating ANZ, 800MW under construction |
NEXTDC, colocation | Liquid-cooled, high-density infrastructure | 1,200MW planned at M5 |
AirTrunk, colocation | AI-ready powered shells across the region | Capacity not stated in the release |
Megaport, interconnect | Compute through its Latitude.sh subsidiary | A$54.3m of AI compute capex at FY26 |
Compiled from NVIDIA's 9 September statement, company disclosures and Certified Strategic reporting, 10 September 2026.
The only organisations the release names on the demand side are Atlassian and the clinical AI company Heidi, and it names them as users of NVIDIA's Nemotron open models rather than as customers of the eight.
What to watch
Firmus will have to put a number on its own DSX capacity before any of the others do. It was reported on 8 September to be starting investor meetings for an ASX float, and a prospectus has to say which buildings carry the 1.6GW it targets for 2028 and which of them are in Australia. Sharon AI's listing documents would do the same for its 212MW, which its disclosures still carry company-wide.
One 2027 opening is already on the record, Firmus's Launceston build, the first data centre it will own in Australia. Everything else on that timetable would have to come out of CDC's build or NEXTDC's 1,200MW at M5, and both run through AEMO's connection queue, which held 9GW of data centre projects at 30 June with 7.6GW still at the application stage. Its next quarterly update is where movement would first show.