Australia has around six gigawatts of potential data center capacity in its pipeline with an estimated build-out of around AU$150 billion by 2030, making it the potential dominant driver of business investment growth over the next few years, Commonwealth Bank of Australia said in a note on Thursday.
Around 50% of this proposed capacity is in New South Wales and around 25% in Victoria, with interest growing in South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory.
The bank estimated that data centers will add around six percentage points to real business investment growth in 2026 and around five percentage points in 2027. Data center investment will contribute around 0.2 percentage points to real gross domestic product growth in both 2026 and 2027, per the lender.
Only three of 162 operational data centers in the country currently have capacity above 100 megawatts, the bank said. However, many projects in the pipeline have a capacity of several hundred megawatts or nearly one gigawatt, it added.
NextDC's (ASX:NXT) shares were marginally higher in recent Thursday trade, while Digico's (ASX:DGT) shares gained 1%. Goodman Group's (ASX:GMG) shares shed over 1%, and Macquarie Technology's (ASX:MAQ) shares tumbled 3%.
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