How Australian Investors Can Get Involved in The AI Infrastructure Space Race

When Australian tech company Firmus Technologies was founded in 2019, it was a bitcoin mining operation with rooms full of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), running advanced liquid cooling systems and powered by cheap wholesale energy. As luck would have it, these are the key ingredients of AI data centres. Fast forward to 2026, and the company has pivoted to creating data centres, securing US$10b in debt financing led by investment giants Blackstone and Coatue to help build out AI factories across five major Australian cities.

This novel pivot tells you everything you need to know about where global capital is flowing right now, and why Australia’s AI infrastructure deficit is becoming a compelling investment theme.

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The AI infrastructure gap

As the implementation of AI into almost every company’s business model accelerates, so too does the demand for AI infrastructure. The reason is simple: AI workloads are voracious consumers of computational power. The amount of GPU clusters, liquid cooling systems and enormous energy supplies required to keep up with demand are all fuelling new builds of data centres; and while the hyperscalers like Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are creating solutions in North America, capital is now flowing into other regions as governments and industries recognise the need for local infrastructure.

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Australia steps up to the plate

Amazon Web Services has committed A$20 billion to Australian data centre infrastructure through 2029, Microsoft has earmarked A$5 billion for the same, and Blackstone recently acquired local data centre company AirTrunk for A$24 billion – the largest data centre transaction of its time. So there is no doubt that Australia has become a strategically important region for AI infrastructure.

The ingredients here are key: competitive energy pricing, good proximity to fast-growing Asian markets, renewable energy mandates that gel with sustainability mandates and a stable regulatory environment.

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How Can Investors Explore These Opportunities

On the ASX, NEXTDC (NXT), Australia’s largest independent data centre operator, which recently signed a partnership with OpenAI and has grown contracted utilisation by 30% in the past year. Goodman Group (GMG) has pivoted heavily into data centres, with nearly 70% of its A$12.4 billion development pipeline now dedicated to data centre projects and a global power bank of 5GW. Macquarie Technology Group (MAQ) serves 42% of Australian Government agencies from its sovereign-certified facilities. Meanwhile, Firmus itself is expected to pursue an ASX listing later this year. There are also several companies adjacent to the AI infrastructure boom worthy of mention, such as Megaport (MP1), which connects over 1,000 data centres globally, and DigiCo Infrastructure REIT (DGT), which owns the physical real estate underpinning data centre operations.

In Hong Kong, SUNeVision Holdings (1686.HK) is the territory’s largest data centre operator, while the recent listing of GPU designer Biren Technology (6082.HK) signals growing investor appetite for AI hardware plays in the region. GDS Holdings, a major China and Southeast Asia operator, also trades in Hong Kong (9698.HK).

On US exchanges, global data centre REITs Equinix (EQIX) and Digital Realty Trust (DLR) offer broad exposure to the worldwide buildout, including significant APAC operations. NVIDIA (NVDA), as the dominant supplier of AI chips powering these facilities, remains the primary upstream enabler of the entire theme.

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Why investors should take an interest

This is not a short-term cycle. Moody’s analysis projects that global investment in AI-related infrastructure could exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years. While Australia’s existing national infrastructure development pipeline (measured in energy consumed) stands at 8,000MW, only a quarter of that is development-ready, meaning that many years of investment and construction lie ahead for our country.

The race for AI supremacy will not only be won by those who build the best models and GPU chips, but also those who can build the best infrastructure to house, power and scale AI innovation, making Australia a great home for this narrative to play out over decades.