Macquarie & Dell to bring sovereign AI infrastructure to Australia
Macquarie Data Centres has entered into a partnership with Dell Technologies to host Dell's NVIDIA-powered AI Factory within its sovereign, government-grade data centres in Australia.
The agreement will facilitate Australian organisations' utilisation of artificial intelligence while ensuring compliance with strict data security and sovereignty requirements. The Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA will be anchored within Macquarie's new IC3 Super West data centre, which has been designed to support high-scale and high-power AI applications.
The collaboration combines Dell's expertise in artificial intelligence infrastructure with Macquarie Data Centres' established sovereign facilities, aiming to support sectors with rigorous regulatory obligations, such as healthcare, finance, education and research. These sectors often face stringent conditions controlling data location and processing, and the solution is targeted at meeting these standards.
According to Macquarie Data Centres, the facility will power a range of AI projects, including those in enterprise AI, private AI and neo cloud, offering what the partners describe as a secure foundation to build, train and deploy advanced applications including AI digital twins, agentic AI and private large language models (LLMs).
Demand for sovereign AI
The federal government has highlighted the role of data centres in its Future Made in Australia policy as part of broader efforts to enhance national productivity. The government sees data infrastructure as integral to achieving AI-related productivity improvements and protecting national digital sovereignty.
Macquarie Data Centres Chief Executive Officer David Hirst said,
"For Australia's AI-driven future to be secure, we must ensure that Australian data centres play a core role in AI, data, infrastructure, and operations. Our collaboration with Dell Technologies delivers just that, the perfect marriage of global tech and sovereign infrastructure."
The new IC3 Super West facility, where the AI infrastructure will be based, is under construction at Macquarie Park Data Centre Campus in northern Sydney. The 47MW data centre is planned to be ready by mid-2026, with all the required power secured to support both current and future AI workloads.
Dell's AI Factory in Australia
Dell Technologies' General Manager for Australia and New Zealand Specialty Platforms Sales, Jamie Humphrey, commented,
"Our work with Macquarie Data Centres helps bring the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA vision to life in Australia. Together, we are enabling organisations to develop and deploy AI as a transformative and competitive advantage in Australia in a way that is secure, sovereign and scalable."
The arrangement aims to provide critical infrastructure and highly regulated organisations with facilities that allow them to develop AI capabilities without compromising control over their data, addressing both regulatory compliance and digital sovereignty concerns.
Macquarie Data Centres operates as part of Macquarie Technology Group, which has a ten-year growth pipeline designed to allow customers to scale operations as AI adoption increases across sectors. The company has been working with Dell Technologies for more than 15 years and is a certified Dell Titanium Partner, supporting workloads considered mission-critical and of government-grade sensitivity.
Expanding capabilities
This partnership marks what both companies describe as a new chapter in the application of AI infrastructure in Australia. The installation of the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA at Macquarie's IC3 Super West is positioned to underpin Australia's ongoing digital transformation efforts, providing resources for organisations seeking to leverage AI while remaining compliant with national security and data handling requirements.
The availability of sovereign infrastructure for AI is expected to increase opportunities for organisations in critical and regulated industries to experiment with and deploy AI technologies, including sensitive applications, within Australia's borders.
The development of IC3 Super West and the integration of the Dell AI Factory are intended to position both companies to serve the rising demand for sovereign AI solutions as regulatory landscapes and digital transformation priorities evolve in Australia.
