OpenAI is officially setting up shop in Australia, here's what it means
The company is building sovereign AI infrastructure while training 1.2 million workers in its first major Asia-Pacific expansion.
OpenAI just placed its biggest international bet yet. The company announced OpenAI for Australia on December 4, combining a $4.6 billion (A$7 billion) data center partnership with NEXTDC, an Australian Data Centre operator in Sydney and a workforce training initiative targeting 1.2 million Australians. It's the first country-specific program in the Asia-Pacific region, and the scale signals how seriously OpenAI is taking global expansion as competition heats up.
The infrastructure piece centers on NEXTDC's S7 site in Eastern Creek, Sydney. The planned 550-megawatt GPU supercluster would be one of the most powerful in the southern hemisphere, designed specifically for sensitive government and enterprise workloads that need to stay within Australian borders. NEXTDC's stock surged nearly 11% following the announcement, closing 3.1% higher as investors recognized the long-term revenue potential.
The facility will utilize closed-loop liquid cooling with zero drinking water consumption and will be powered by renewable energy. Construction is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2027, creating thousands of jobs in engineering, manufacturing, and operations.
Oyinebiladou Omemu
But the ChatGPT maker isn't just building compute capacity. The company partnered with three of Australia's largest employers, Commonwealth Bank, Coles, and Wesfarmers, to roll out AI skills training through OpenAI Academy. The program will reach over 1.2 million workers and small business customers starting in 2026, making it one of the greatest coordinated AI upskilling efforts globally.
Commonwealth Bank will distribute training modules to approximately one million small business clients. Coles and Wesfarmers, which together employ more than 200,000 people, will provide AI literacy programs to their entire workforces.
OpenAI has increasing competition. Google's Gemini hit 650 million monthly active users in October 2025, drawing closer to ChatGPT's total of 800 million weekly active users. Anthropic's Claude is also gaining traction in the enterprise sector. In light of this, CEO Sam Altman reportedly issued an internal "code red", shutting down other projects to devote resources to keeping the lead with ChatGPT.
Australia gives a range of strategic advantages: abundant renewable energy, a highly educated English-speaking workforce, stable regulatory frameworks, and even a government actively encouraging AI adoption under its National AI Plan. By embedding itself into Australia's infrastructure, workforce, and startup ecosystem all at once, OpenAI is not just selling software; it is becoming integral to the country's digital backbone.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers called the partnership "terrific proof Australia has the talent, clean energy potential, and policy settings needed to be one of the big winners when it comes to AI."
Whether this model succeeds will determine OpenAI's blueprint for global expansion. If it works, expect similar programs in other strategic markets. If it stumbles, competitors will have learned what not to do.
Louis Eriakha
