INTHEBLACK October 2026 - Magazine - Page 21
The rapid rollout of data
centres across Australia and
Asia is crucial to fast-track
the AI revolution and should
drive economic growth
and employment.
Environmental concerns
remain over the impact of
data centres given their
voracious appetite for
electricity and water,
especially as AI use increases.
BIG DEALS
Governments and enterprises are investing
heavily in data centres to meet soaring demand
for computing power and data storage.
Globally, real estate services giant JLL
forecasts the sector will experience an
infrastructure investment “super cycle”
requiring spending of up to US$3 trillion
(A$4.2 trillion) by 2030. Almost
100 gigawatts (GW ) of new data centres
will be added between 2026 and 2030,
doubling global capacity and necessitating
energy innovations to alleviate grid
constraints. Asia-Pacific data-centre capacity
will expand by 24 GW by 2030, JLL predicts.
These investments are likely to drive jobs
and economic prosperity, but “not in my
backyard” resistance to the centres is
increasing. In 2025 in the United States
alone, data-centre projects worth an
estimated US$156 billion (A$222 billion)
were blocked or delayed, according to
Data Centre Watch. Concerns over energy
consumption and environmental, social
and governance (ESG) factors are typically
behind the backlash.
The Australian Industry Group has also
warned that the nation’s power grid is “not
ready for the projected growth in power
demands for these centres”. However,
Jannat Maqbool FCPA, a member of the
CPA Australia Digital Transformation Centre
of Excellence, says data centres are becoming
foundational economic infrastructure for the
next phase of the digital economy — not just
technical assets or back-end facilities.
“They will enable AI, advanced analytics,
cloud, cybersecurity, research, automation
and new forms of digital service delivery,”
says Maqbool, who is business development
manager at the Australian Urban Research
Infrastructure Network, The University
of Melbourne.
For customers, she says the data centres
will enable access to more reliable, secure
and scalable digital services. “More importantly,
Accountants have a key role
to play in the data-centre
evolution in areas such
as capital allocation, risk
management, assurance
and ESG reporting.
it should mean businesses can access
sophisticated tools and computing capability
without necessarily having to build everything
themselves.”
The point many commentators miss,
according to Scroggie, is that data centres
do not create the underlying demand for
“compute” — that is, the ability of computer
systems to process and execute tasks,
calculations and operations. “They aggregate
it into purpose-built infrastructure that
is far more efficient than what it replaces.
Run those workloads back across the office
buildings and on-premise server rooms
they came from, and national electricity
consumption would be higher, not lower.
Aggregation is one of the largest energy
productivity gains in the economy.”
He says the sector is also “underwriting
the energy transition, rather than competing
with it”.
APAC BENEFITS
Other industry groups are upbeat about
the impact of data centres in Australia.
Elizabeth Whitelock, CEO of the
Australian Information Industry Association
(AIIA), says the data-centre pipeline is
“one of the most consequential industrial
investments Australia will see this decade”.
“The sector is committing about A$26 billion
to Australia by 2030, and that capital is doing
far more than building facilities,” she says.
“It is laying the foundation for every part
of the modern economy, from cloud services
and AI to financial services, health care and
government service delivery.”
Whitelock says such investment will also
translate to reliable, scalable computing
power. This will enable Australian businesses
to adopt AI, modernise operations and
compete globally.
The AIIA says an annual AI opportunity
of A$142 billion exists for Australia by 2030,
including A$18 billion from building sovereign
domestic AI capability and A$11 billion from
intheblack.cpaaustralia.com.au 21
