Cisco, a networking and security company, Sharon AI, an Australian neocloud and high-performance computing company and NVIDIA, the chipmaker behind most of the world's AI hardware, announced Australia's first Cisco Secure AI Factory in Sydney on February 23, 2026. The facility runs on 1,024 NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs, with all AI processing and data handling kept entirely within Australian borders.
Sharon AI is offering enterprise and government customers solutions tailored to different industries through the factory, plus access to a sandbox environment for running proof-of-concept tests before committing to full deployment.
The factory is directly tied to Australia's newly released National AI Plan, which calls for sovereign, locally controlled AI development. Cisco described it as infrastructure built to "power an AI-enabled economy," per the official announcement.
How the factory is built
Four components make up the infrastructure. Cisco provides the servers that handle the core computing work and the networking technology that connects and manages everything across the facility. VAST Data, a storage infrastructure company, handles the high-throughput data demands that large AI workloads require. NEXTDC's Australian data centres host all of it, keeping every process within the country.
Stefan Leitl, Cisco's Vice President and General Manager for Australia and New Zealand, said in the official announcement that the factory gives enterprises and governments the tools to "harness their data for differentiation" within a trustworthy AI ecosystem.
More deployments already in the works
Sharon AI Co-Founder and CEO James Manning confirmed the 1,024-GPU deployment is the first of many. The company is already working with Cisco on additional clusters and wider enterprise rollouts across Asia-Pacific through 2026 and beyond.
Sudarsharn Ramachandran, NVIDIA's Country Manager for Enterprise Australia and New Zealand, described the sovereign AI infrastructure as "a critical resource for enterprises across the Asia-Pacific region."
Australia is the first country in the region with this facility. Sharon AI says the sandbox is open now.
David Adubiina
