Anthropic’s reported data centre ambitions in Australia have sent shares soaring and dragged the AI boom into another fight over energy, water, copyright and Big Tech power.
The AI lab confirmed reporting from the Financial Review that it is in discussions about local infrastructure, but was careful with its language. There was a lot of “exploring”, “early conversations” and not much explicitly affirming the scale being reported.
Shares in Nasdaq-listed IREN (+13.1%) and Sharon AI (+17.7%) both surged on Wall Street on Monday after being named in the report as possible Anthropic targets. NextDC rose 2.7% on the ASX.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on the weekend that investors are lining up to build data centres in Australia, and that if the nation sets the right ground rules it could help shape the future and reap the economic benefits.
