Nvidia backs a 2-gigawatt AI infrastructure buildout across Australia with eight local partners
Sharon AI alone plans to deploy up to 68,000 Nvidia GPUs, and IREN is building an 800MW campus in South Australia. Hyperscale AI capacity is expanding into a region with its own energy and grid constraints.
Nvidia announced a partnership with eight Australian data-center firms on September 9, 2026 (Firmus, Sharon AI, IREN, Megaport, ResetData, CDC, NEXTDC, and AirTrunk) to expand the country's AI infrastructure capacity toward roughly 2 gigawatts by 2027, hosting multiple generations of Nvidia's DSX AI-factory compute platforms. Sharon AI alone plans to deploy up to 68,000 Nvidia GPUs with Quantum InfiniBand and Spectrum-X networking. IREN is building an 800-megawatt campus in South Australia. Partner Firmus has branded the effort "Project Southgate," tied to roughly $10 billion in financing per subsequent coverage.
A new region
Nvidia VP Raj Mirpuri described the logic: "AI factories turn energy into intelligence -- the essential resource of the AI economy." Putting multi-gigawatt capacity in Australia, in place of further growth at existing US or Asian hubs, brings hyperscale AI infrastructure into a region with its own energy market, grid constraints, and data-residency rules. The operating conditions are new, beyond the extra square footage.
Regional latency and data-residency planning
If you run AI workloads that need to stay close to Asia-Pacific users or meet regional data-residency requirements, a 2-gigawatt buildout across eight operators means meaningful new capacity is coming online in the region. With multiple named local providers competing to host the same platform generation, you also get more choice of provider.
Sources
- Nvidia expands Australia AI infrastructure with local partners — Engineering.com (Srabanti Chakraborty)
- NVIDIA Expands AI Infrastructure Capacity in Partnership With Australia's Data Center Ecosystem — Nvidia (official)