The company’s investment could top A$73B by 2028, signaling Nvidia’s push for global AI dominance and digital sovereignty.
Artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) has made another data center bet, this time in Australia, as it makes significant investments in partnerships and strategic initiatives to further its dominance.
Australia’s AI infrastructure company, Firmus Technologies, announced a strategic partnership with Nvidia and CDC Data Centers for Project Southgate to deliver sovereign, world-class AI capability at scale. The project is a renewable energy-powered infrastructure network to unlock national capability in AI with emphasis on clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and digital sovereignty.
Firmus said the first stage of the project is currently under construction in Tasmania and Melbourne, which will utilize 150 megawatt (MW) power, representing 54,000 Nvidia GB300 AI chips delivered by mid-2026. The alliance’s A$4.5 billion ($2.92 billion) first-stage investment is to be delivered at Southgate Melbourne. This AI infrastructure will feature 18,500 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs, which have been ordered and are expected to come online by April 2026.
The investment is expected to scale up to A$73.3 billion, with 1.6 gigawatt (GW) of operational AI Factories by 2028, creating 20,700 jobs across construction, advanced manufacturing, operations, and technical roles.
Nvidia will establish a DGX Cloud region at Southgate Melbourne. DGX Cloud is Nvidia’s unified, fully managed AI platform that provides access to high-performance Nvidia GPUs and software on leading cloud providers.
NVDA Retail Sentiment Slips
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment toward Nvidia stock tempered to ‘neutral’ as of early Thursday from ‘bullish’ the day before. The message volume continued to be ‘high.’ Retail traders are yet to react to the news, with much of the chatter surrounding Taiwanese foundry TSMC’s (TSM) results and their implications for Nvidia.
Nvidia Brisk With AI Bets
Nvidia, which initially invested in smaller customers and AI startups such as CoreWeave (CRWV), began to step up its investments, leveraging the fundamental gains it reaped from its early foray and market-leading position in AI chip manufacturing.
AI Startup and Sam Altman-led OpenAI had received a $100 billion commitment from Nvidia for AI infrastructure buildout. OpenAI, in turn, has a cloud computing deal with Oracle, which uses Nvidia chips. The Jensen Huang-led company has taken part in a recent funding round of Elon Musk-led xAI, contributing $2 billion in equity capital.
The circular financing deals in the AI space have recently sparked fears of a potential bubble burst, with some analysts warning about spurious “related-party transactions” that could boost the valuations of the involved companies.
Nvidia’s profits and revenue have risen exponentially since the AI revolution kicked off in early 2023, following the huge popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT large-language model.
In the second quarter that ended in late July, Nvidia’s revenue grew 56% year-over-year to $46.74 billion, and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) jumped 54%. The company ended the quarter with a war chest of $56.79 billion in cash.
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