Tech giant Anthropic has made moves to buy up Australia\u2019s available data centre capacity as the country\u2019s $155 billion boom continues to generate debate.<\/p>\n
The $US1 trillion company behind Claude has previously signalled that it sees Australia as a \u201cnatural fit\u201d for its extended operations and planned to expand investment in local data centres.<\/p>\n
According to the Australian Financial Review, Anthropic has told local developers it would buy any available capacity that could be delivered by mid-2027.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s understood, however, the company distanced itself from reports in the Financial Review it was working to secure a copyright deal with the Australian government that could involve a text and data mining exemption to train its AI models.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The federal government has repeatedly said it would not change copyright laws to suit AI companies, and Labor MP Ed Husic pushed back on the reports on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can only take on face value what we\u2019ve said as a government, which is copyright laws wouldn\u2019t change and they shouldn\u2019t frankly,\u201d he told Sky News.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are some of the biggest companies on the planet \u2026 they can pay up if they want content.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need to bend over backwards to water down copyright laws and by virtue of that \u2026 the amount of money people get for the stuff that they produce.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said people in creative industries \u201cpour their heart into\u201d their work and should not be expected to hand it over to hugely profitable companies for free.<\/p>\n
The former science and innovation minister said the big tech firms were looking to establish Australia\u2019s data centre industry because the issue had become a \u201chot potato\u201d in the US due to the facilities \u201cchewing up so much energy and water\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Husic said the level of demand for data centres was not actually due to capacity requirements for AI but to \u201csatisfy the valuations of the investors\u201d.<\/p>\n
Andrew Charlton, the Assistant Minister for Science and Technology, also reiterated that Australia \u201cwill not do a text and data mining exemption\u201d.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Minister for Industry and Innovation and Science Tim Ayres said the government\u2019s position on text and data mining exemptions \u201chas not changed\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cStakeholders make representations to government all the time, but the Albanese government makes its own decisions consistent with the principles set out in the National AI Plan and the Data Centre Expectations,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
It comes after Anthropic last month flagged its intention to offer an IPO on the US stock market, with its valuation expected to be more than $US1 trillion ($1.44 trillion).<\/p>\n
It was reportedly pursuing 1.4 gigawatts of capacity in Australia, as much as the entire data centre industry produced by the end of 2025, by the middle of 2027.<\/p>\n
An Anthropic spokesperson said it was \u201cexploring building compute capacity in Australia\u201d, a country that was \u201ca natural fit given our longstanding belief that democracies should lead in AI development\u201d. <\/p>\n
The spokespersons said its data centre plans aligned \u201cwith the Australian government\u2019s own ambitions to become a trusted destination for sustainable AI infrastructure\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe MOU we signed with the Australian government commits Anthropic to operating within the Data Centre Expectations set out by the government,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re exploring adding local capacity through our third-party partners in Australia, using infrastructure already in place. This is among the most consistent requests we hear from Australian enterprises and government agencies, particularly those with data residency requirements. <\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond that, we\u2019re in early conversations about longer-term infrastructure in the region, and we\u2019ll share more as those plans take shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Data centres have become a flashpoint for debate in Australia with $155 billion worth of projects in the pipeline.<\/p>\n