Anthropic is seeking at least 1.4GW of data centre capacity in Australia, according to documents cited by the Australian Financial Review.

The capacity could cost up to US$15 billion, or around A$21.6 billion, to develop, with Anthropic reportedly seeking at least 1GW by the end of 2027.

According to AFR’s Street Talk column, Anthropic issued a confidential request for proposal (RFP) to several Australian data centre operators, including CDC Data Centres, AirTrunk, NextDC, Iren and Stack.

The company is seeking a long-term development partner for a campus of more than 1.4GW, although the requirement could be split across four or five contracts. If that happens, Infratil-owned CDC Data Centres is expected to secure the largest share at around 500MW, AFR reported, citing sources.

The RFP reportedly focuses on bidders’ financing capacity, land availability, delivery track record, energy strategy and ability to support a multi-year development. Anthropic is also open to working with a partner that does not yet have a fully developed site.

The report said on Sunday that Anthropic was still at least six weeks from a final decision and could split the requirement across four or five contracts, rather than award the full mandate to one provider.

The reported tender follows Anthropic’s launch in Australia earlier this year.

In April, the company signed an MoU with the Australian government to cooperate on AI safety research and support Australia’s National AI Plan.

Anthropic has also said it is exploring investment in Australian data centre and energy infrastructure, while announcing A$3 million, or US$2 million, in partnerships with local research institutions using Claude for healthcare and computer science research.

The Australian tender adds to Anthropic’s wider push to secure long-term data centre capacity as demand for AI compute rises. 

Earlier this week, TeraWulf announced a 20-year lease with Anthropic at its Justified data centre campus in Hawesville, Kentucky. The deal is expected to generate around US$19 billion in contracted revenue over the initial term and cover approximately 401MW of critical IT load. Initial capacity is expected in the second half of 2027, with the campus reaching full load by early 2028.

Anthropic has also signed multiple letters of intent to lease data centre capacity from third-party developers, according to The Information. Those potential leases could total around 1GW of compute capacity and may be financially backed by Google, one of Anthropic’s major investors.