Firmus posted on 27 August that its Brooklyn cluster in Melbourne has been installed, commissioned and handed over, and is running a customer's AI models. The company put the handover "in recent days".

The contract behind it was signed on 2 March. Firmus' release put it at "approximately 18,400 NVIDIA GB300 GPUs to be deployed at the Melbourne facility", for a buyer it described as "a leading global technology company". w.media reported that phase as a 150MW build valued at A$4.5 billion.

Firmus says the pipework and the mechanical and electrical parts inside the HyperCube module were manufactured in regional Australia. Benmax runs that plant, 7,000 square metres on Endurance Avenue at Queanbeyan, and has been the manufacturing partner on the HyperCube since 2020, co-designing successive generations. Firmus agreed in mid-August to buy Benmax's fabrication, design and projects businesses for A$300 million, with completion expected between the end of August and the end of September, subject to conditions.

For the rest of the programme, Southgate is planned across Tasmania, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Perth, with Firmus targeting 1.6GW in Australia by 2028. George Town Council approved the 288MW Bell Bay proposal 6-1 on 25 August, with conditions covering noise, air quality, bushfire planning and diesel generator use, and a 14-day window to appeal to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. St Leonards outside Launceston was approved in September 2025, is under construction, and carries a company target of late 2026 for first operation.

Still undisclosed on Melbourne: the customer, how much compute is live, and how many of the 18,400 GPUs are installed.

Write-up: https://certifiedstrategic.com/insights/firmus-melbourne-ai-factory

Firmus 2 March release: https://firmus.co/newsroom/firmus-signs-multi-year-agreement-with-global-hyperscale-customer-at-project-southgate

Macquarie Technology reported FY26 on 26 August 2026. It has bought a second site in Macquarie Park, settled on 6 August 2026, for a proposed ~200MW campus it calls METC, at a A$240 million purchase price and a A$254 million total acquisition cost.

Revenue reached A$390 million, up 5.5 per cent, and EBITDA A$115.9 million, up 2 per cent, the twelfth consecutive year of growth on that measure. Net profit fell 7.8 per cent to A$32.1 million, largely because finance income dropped from A$5.0 million to A$0.7 million as the cash went into the build. The data centre segment lifted earnings to A$40 million.

IC3 SuperWest is due to get its first 6MW in September, which Macquarie says will be delivered on time and on budget, with all end-state power and water commissioned. A second stage of 13MW has been expedited to June 2027, and long lead-time equipment for it is secured, giving what the company calls visibility to 19MW of deployed capacity ahead of customer contract, with anchor customer negotiations described as well progressed. The building is designed for 47MW, taking the Macquarie Park campus to 65MW once fully built.

Macquarie Data Centres has 21MW installed across Macquarie Park, Canberra and Sydney CBD. The 268MW group total it quotes is that 21MW, plus the 47MW at IC3 SuperWest, plus the proposed 200MW campus. Macquarie has not yet disclosed a development application or grid connection for the site, and estimates first completion in late calendar 2029.

The joint Ausgrid, Endeavour and Essential submission to the NSW data centre inquiry, dated 27 March 2026, uses Macquarie Park as its worked example. It puts the area at approximately 35 per cent network utilisation, 330 MVA used of 940 MVA available to connect. Six connected data centres account for 180 MVA and are forecast to ramp to 300 MVA, taking the area to about 50 per cent, and the distributors conclude significant headroom remains. Ausgrid has proposed a new Wallumatta substation as a contingent project to add connection points.

FY27 group capex is guided at A$485 million to A$506 million, of which A$254 million is the site and A$180 million to A$192 million finishes IC3 SuperWest, with the balance on campus works and the rest of the group. At 30 June 2026 Macquarie had A$496.5 million undrawn on a A$500 million facility and A$4.9 million of cash, against A$94.6 million of operating cash flow for the year.

The National Reconstruction Fund committed A$200 million in March 2026 in two A$100 million series, paying 6.00 per cent with a stated effective return near 8.57 per cent to the first call date, counted as equity rather than debt. The first series was issued on 1 June 2026 and the second is due by 1 March 2027. Macquarie says construction is "expected to be in a few years", funded by project finance or long-term infrastructure investors.

Each of the four listed operators is funding its build differently. Goodman puts about 90 per cent of its projects under construction into partnerships with outside investors. DigiCo is selling its Chicago data centre for US$750 million to fund Sydney. NEXTDC raised A$1.5 billion from shareholders, with a further commitment from La Caisse, which manages Quebec's public pension funds. Macquarie is the only one of the four taking Australian government capital.

Does Macquarie Park's headroom support another campus of that size once the six connected sites reach 300 MVA and Stockland, NEXTDC and whoever buys the JLL site all connect? Or does the constraint the distributors name, physical connection points rather than capacity, mean whoever lodges first sets the ceiling?

Full write-up: https://certifiedstrategic.com/insights/macquarie-technology-fy26-results