The data centre boom in Australia and abroad faces several risks, including electricity and grid constraints, opaque debt financing, and community opposition. According to AMP Capital’s My Bui, these risks could slow the growth of the data centre industry.
Data centres have been around for a while, housing computing infrastructure for cloud storage, website hosting, and networking. However, the recent boom in larger AI data centres has brought significant investor hype. McKinsey estimates that over half of data centre workloads will be AI-related by 2030.
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These facilities require cheap power, land, capital, and a supportive regulatory environment. Australia has had these advantages, leading to a five-fold rise in data centre buildings and equipment since 2020. Hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have driven this growth, with plans for strong investment through 2030.
