NEXTDC to launch $2 billion AI factory and tech campus

Data centre builder and operator NEXTDC has commited $2 billion to develop M4 Melbourne, which is envisaged as a digital campus.

The facility is to be located in Port Melbourne and will comprise three core components: an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Factory, Mission Critical Operations Centre, and Technology Centre of Excellence.

The AI Factory will feature hyper-dense, liquid-cooled infrastructure designed to support Nvidia's Blackwell and Rubin Ultra architectures.

Rack densities will exceed 1000 kilowatt to enable model training, inference, and frontier AI workloads at industrial scale.

The Mission Critical Operations Centre will provide Tier IV infrastructure for defence, enterprise and government applications requiring maximum uptime.

A Technology Centre of Excellence will serve as a national hub for AI skills development, research and development, and innovation programmes.

The campus is planned to deliver up to 150 megawatt of power across 50,000 square metres of mission-critical facilities.

Infrastructure features include liquid cooling systems, on-site solar and microgrids, waste heat recovery systems, and recycled wastewater cooling.

The facility will meet government and defence-grade compliance standards including Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF), Security Construction and Equipment Committee (SCEC), Hosting Certification Framework (HCF), and Defence Industry Security Program (DISP) requirements.

"This isn't just a data centre — it's critical infrastructure for Australia's AI future," Craig Scroggie, chief executive and managing director of NEXTDC, said.

The site occupies the former Westgate Park Printing Complex, previously home to large-scale newspaper printing operations.

M4 Melbourne will anchor the Fishermans Bend Innovation Precinct, supporting advanced manufacturing, aerospace, sovereign defence, and deep tech industries.

NEXTDC is collaborating with RMIT University, University of Melbourne, and national defence partners on the development.

“This project will create high-skilled jobs and lay the  groundwork to support future developments in AI, advanced manufacturing and defence," Danny Pearson, Victoria's minister finance, and for economic growth and jobs, said.

The facility is designed as a regional hub for hyperscale AI, defence workloads, and sovereign computing systems.

Software-defined optical fabrics will deliver real-time, high-speed AI performance capabilities across the campus.

The project represents one of Australia's largest single investments in sovereign AI infrastructure capability.

Construction timelines and operational commencement dates were not disclosed in the announcement.