Macquarie Data Centres breaks ground on IC3 Super West

Macquarie Data Centres has broken ground on its newest data centre, the IC3 Super West in Sydney’s north. The IC3 Super West will be the third and largest data centre at Macquarie Data Centre’s flagship Macquarie Park data centre campus. Once built it will bring the campus’s total IT load up to 63 MW.

Macquarie Data Centres Group Executive David Hirst said the new data centre is being built to accommodate soaring demand driven by adoption of AI and cloud technologies.

“So profound is the impact of AI and cloud that it’s being hailed as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, powered by a different kind of factory, AI factories. Scalable and flexible data centres purpose-built for high-density compute,” he said. “IC3 Super West is our answer to the nation’s need for sovereign AI and cloud data centre capacity. As we continue to expand, we will be acquiring new campuses here in Sydney’s north zone. We’re committed to supporting the growth of Australia’s digital economy and retain our intellectual property within Australia.”

The ground breaking ceremony was held on Tuesday with federal Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security Clare O’Neil. At the event, O’Neil emphasised the role of secure, sovereign data centres in the nation’s digital future.

“Our country has really woken up to and started to fully understand not just the opportunities of a digital future, but also the need to be thinking about cyber and data security at the same time,” she said. “We have some really significant cyber issues and geopolitical tensions to manage as a country, and there’s every reason to believe the challenges we see are going to grow and exacerbate in the years ahead.”

Australian construction provider FDC Construction has been appointed as the main build contractor for the project.

The campus will include a sovereign Cyber Security Centre of Excellence, which is being part funded by the NSW Government. The CoE will integrate the latest in physical and virtual infrastructure security to help improve Australia’s sovereign cybersecurity capability.