While Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino was telling a Tech Council of Australia and Capital Brief event this morning that Australia needs to make AI and data centres a national priority, the country’s largest data centre provider was putting USD3 billion ($4.6 billion) into Saudi Arabia instead.
AirTrunk’s deal overnight with the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund — building the Middle East’s first AI-enabled hyperscale data centre — is precisely the kind of wake-up call that made the minister’s speech about getting digital regulation right feel uncomfortably prescient.
The company, which opened its first Sydney facility in 2017 and has since become Asia-Pacific’s leading data centre operator, chose to partner with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund rather than expand at home.
The tension gripping Australian policymakers right now is simple but paralysing: get the regulatory settings wrong and risk missing out on the investment bonanza reshaping the global economy.
