$28 Billion Gas-Powered AI Data Center: Singapore Developer Plans Outback Australia Site

A Singapore developer has unveiled plans for an off-grid AI data center worth about $28 billion deep in the Australian outback, roughly 683 km south of Darwin in the Northern Territory. According to The Next Web, reporting in July 2026, the facility would become one of the largest data centers in the Southern Hemisphere and would run on gas rather than grid power.

What we know about the project

The developer plans to put the data center on a working cattle station in a sparsely populated part of the Northern Territory, where the main power grid does not reach. It is betting on a local resource the region has in abundance: natural gas. According to The Next Web, this would be one of the largest data centers in the entire Southern Hemisphere.

Key project parameters:

• Stated investment: about $28 billion
• Location: a cattle station roughly 683 km south of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
• Developer headquartered in Singapore
• Off-grid power supply: gas-fired, with no connection to the main grid
• Positioned as one of the largest data centers in the Southern Hemisphere

"The plan relies on a resource the region has in abundance but which the power grid does not reach: gas," is how

The Next Web describes the idea.

Why gas instead of the grid?

The power grid physically does not extend to this part of the outback, so connecting a site of this scale to the main energy system is not possible. Gas solves the problem: the region has enough of it to generate electricity on site and power tens of thousands of servers, without the cost of running transmission lines hundreds of kilometers.

The developer's calculation fits a global trend. Training and running modern AI models takes enormous amounts of electricity, and the queue to connect new data centers to grids in developed countries is growing faster than the grids themselves. Self-contained generation next to a fuel source is becoming a way around that bottleneck, even if it means giving up a "green" image.

Where exactly, and what comes next

The site is in Australia's Northern Territory, one of the country's most sparsely populated and arid regions, 683 km south of Darwin. Formally, it is land belonging to a working cattle station: cheap land, proximity to gas and distance from cities make it attractive for energy-hungry infrastructure.

For now this is a developer's plan, not a facility under construction: the amounts, timelines and funding sources at this scale have yet to be confirmed. Projects costing tens of billions of dollars face a long approval process, especially when the environment and gas-fired generation are involved.

What this means

Demand for AI compute is pushing the industry into places it had not considered before: if the grid does not reach, the data center goes where cheap energy is. The Australian outback, with its gas, is becoming a candidate to serve as one of the energy pillars of AI, with all the questions about the carbon footprint of such projects.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the data center planned?

On a cattle station in Australia's Northern Territory, roughly 683 km south of Darwin, in a sparsely populated part of the outback that the main power grid does not reach.

Why will the data center run on gas rather than the grid?

The power grid physically does not reach the site, while the region has gas in abundance. That allows electricity to be generated on site and the data center to be powered independently, without running transmission lines hundreds of kilometers.