How Microsoft’s 'little' alliance morphed into Australia’s new data centre lobby
Microsoft spent two years quietly coordinating major data centre operators, a push that has now formalised into a peak body aiming to shape Australia’s AI infrastructure.
Microsoft has spent two years leading a little-known, informal alliance of data centre operators to influence the Albanese government and encourage federal spending on digital infrastructure.
That behind-the-scenes effort has now evolved into a formal peak body with ambitions to put Australia “at the front of the global AI infrastructure race”.
Speaking to Capital Brief after the in-person launch of Data Centres Australia in Sydney’s CBD this morning, CEO Belinda Dennett said the group formed amid frustration that policy settings were not keeping pace with the sector’s rapid expansion.
“Two years ago, almost to the day, Microsoft pulled together a little group of five companies, and we talked about how we might lift interest in the sector,” said Dennett, who was Microsoft Australia's director for corporate affairs at the time.
