Centuria is transforming underutilised office space in Melbourne’s CBD into Australia’s first publicly accessible AI Factory, with the possibility of more to follow.
After Centuria Capital Group announced its 50 per cent acquisition of next-generation data service provider ResetData last year, ResetData recently revealed the launch of Australia’s first sovereign public AI Factory, “AI-F1”.
The AI-F1 ‘supercomputer’ is being constructed in an office asset owned by Centuria Office REIT (COF) and will employ state-of the art Nvidia H200 GPU1 clusters utilising ResetData’s Liquid Cooling technology.
It will be Australia’s first publicly available AI supercomputer that is available for businesses – large and small – to access AI capabilities. AI-F1 will have a capacity of 1.25 MW and is scheduled to begin operations in Q2, 2025.
Centuria Capital Group’s Joint CEO, Jason Huljich said COF has converted vacant office space into new data infrastructure on a 10-year lease.
He said this move has already enhanced the building’s book value by 10 per cent.
“Importantly, the inclusion of AI-F1 provides enhanced, unequivocal value-add to building tenants and occupiers in close proximity as it provides less latency.
“These AI factories differ from traditional data centres for a number of reasons. First, ResetData AI factories will feature high-density NVIDIA H200 GPU clusters which rely on Liquid Cooling to provide cooled environments. The liquid cooled technology that ResetData utilises requires significantly less space than air-cooled data centres that are typically housed in warehouses on the outskirts of cities.“
Mr Huljich said ResetData has identified a potential 10MW pipeline that could be deployed across unused office space in the short-term.
The subsequent AI factories will be known sequentially as AI-F2, AI-F3 etc. The locations of these potential new AI factories are currently within Centuria’s portfolio, across listed and unlisted assets.
Mr Huljich said he sees potential for such sites in other asset classes.
“These supercomputers are not just limited to office assets but can be incorporated into infill industrial facilities, retail precincts, mixed-use precincts, healthcare properties and even agricultural assets.
“ResetData is putting Australian IT on a more energy-efficient and sustainable footing with 40% lower costs, 45% fewer emissions, and zero wastewater. These efficiencies are of national importance, as data centres already use a twentieth of the nation’s power supply and are growing rapidly. Ultra-high density, low-latency AI factories are the industry’s future.”
Mr Huljich said focusing on AI supercomputers has multiple benefits.
“For our tenant customers, it is a value-add service with latent connectivity for users. From our investors’ perspective, we anticipate potential positive valuation uplift for the assets that house these AI Factories – as exemplified by AI-F1 within COF’s Melbourne CBD office asset.“
Alongside AI-F1, ResetData also announced the introduction of an AI Marketplace.
It is akin to “an app store” where users can plug-and-play various AI agents, Large Language Models and Machine Learning technology.
For example, the AI Marketplace can link a Xero account, with Shopify, with a foreign exchange platform and Open AI to enhance a small trader’s international sales campaign.