Australian AI cloud firm Firmus is planning expansion across Australia in partnering with local operator CDC Data Centres.

The company has announced a strategic alliance with CDC, and plans to extend its AI platform to mainland Australia.

The company said the partnership could extend its capacity to 1.6GW under an initiative known as Project Southgate. As well as the existing project in Tasmania, deployments are planned in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, and Perth.

It's unclear if CDC will be building out new facilities for this partnership or if Firmus will be taking capacity in existing and/or previously announced data centers.

The project will total an initial investment of AU$4.5 billion (US$2.9bn), with potential to scale up to A$73.3 billion (US$47.68bn) and 1.6GW of operational capacity through 2028.

Southgate’s first stages are under construction in Tasmania and Melbourne, with up to 150MW, representing 54,000 GB300s, delivered by mid-2026.

The partnership’s AU$4.5 billion first-stage investment is to be delivered at Southgate Melbourne and will feature 18,500 Nvidia GB300 GPUs, which have been ordered and are expected to come online by April 2026.

"Project Southgate is a blueprint for how Australia can lead the world in scalable, sovereign AI infrastructure. We’re building a new kind of national capability—Australian-designed, powered by renewables, and ready to meet global demand for energy-efficient intelligence,” said Oliver Curtis, co-Founder and CEO of Firmus Technologies.

The deployments will use LiquidCore, CDC’s proprietary cooling technology, which the firm says does not consume water for primary cooling.

“CDC is proud to provide the data center infrastructure for Project Southgate and play a critical role in positioning Australia as a leader in sustainable AI. This project will create tens of thousands of safe, high-paying Australian jobs across trades, construction, operations, and knowledge work and send a clear signal that Australians can benefit from applying ingenuity, innovation, and world-leading designs to shape the future of AI,” added Greg Boorer, CEO and founder, CDC.

Firmus said Nvidia’s DGX Cloud will be among the first customers to benefit from access to Southgate, establishing a DGX Cloud region at Southgate Melbourne.

"Australia is embarking on a transformative journey powered by sovereign AI infrastructure that can accelerate innovation across its industries. Firmus’s Nvidia AI infrastructure will support Australia’s leadership in building and deploying efficient, sustainable AI to solve its greatest challenges and shape the next generation of growth,” said Raymond Teh, SVP for Asia Pacific at Nvidia.

Founded in 2019, Firmus was initially focused on crypto and high-performance compute, specializing in immersion cooling, but today describes itself as a pure AI factory builder. The firm is backed by Nvidia and Ellerston Capital, as well as Regal Funds Management, Archibald Capital, and Tectonic Investment Management. In June, Firmus raised AU$280 million (US$180m) in preparation for going public on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Firmus currently operates an R&D facility in Tasmania and is expanding on the Australian island with a 90MW development that could eventually reach 300MW.

In more recent years, Firmus' AI cloud offering was migrated to STT GDC data centers in Singapore, where it offers access to Nvidia H100 GPUs in a liquid-cooled data center via its SMC Cloud unit. Firmus is an Nvidia partner, and earlier in July announced it had joined the GPU maker’s Lepton cloud marketplace.

The company said all its developments in Australia will be covered by renewable energy, and that its data centers could support the development of up to 5.1GW of new wind, solar, storage, and hydro generation projects across Australia.

Founded in 2007 as Canberra Data Centres, CDC has nearly 20 sites in operation and development across Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, and Auckland, New Zealand.

According to investor Infratil’s most recent results, CDC has 302MW of data center capacity in operation, with 388MW in development across Melbourne (121MW), Sydney (158MW), Canberra (39MW), and New Zealand (70MW) set to go within 18 months. The company’s future development pipeline now totals a further 1.6GW out to 2034.

Earlier this year, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and Firmus signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore seawater-based cooling systems for modular AI factories.