Anthropic leases capacity at Queensland data centre hub

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said on September 16 that Anthropic has signed its first Australian data centre agreement, taking capacity at Zerra DC's proposed A$32 billion Western Downs Digital Park near Dalby. Reuters, citing two people familiar with the deal, said the lease covers a campus planned for 2.16 gigawatts of peak power draw on farmland about 250 km from Brisbane, with buildings starting to come online in 2027 and Anthropic using the site for inference rather than model training. The lease is subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval and the developer only lodged its planning application with the local council in August; Anthropic and Zerra DC declined to comment to Reuters.