Facing legal challenges and public backlash at home, American tech giants are looking abroad for new opportunities in Australia. But the reception in Australia may not be as warm as they hope.
Transcription
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Facing legal challenges and public backlash at home, American tech giants have been looking for new opportunities abroad, and Australia is high on their list. But, as Kristina Kukolja reports from Melbourne, the reception in Australia may not be as warm as expected.
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KRISTINA KUKOLJA, BYLINE: The sound of native birds as they fly over fields as far as the eye can see; these were once the largest goldfields in Australia. Now, the vast farmland on the outskirts of Melbourne is the setting for a mid-sized data center proposed by Australian developer RV Energy.
ALAN FORD: We don’t know anything. No one has told us anything to do with this data center. We have heard it through hearsay in the media.
KUKOLJA: That’s Alan Ford, a fifth-generation farmer whose land abuts the planned site, an abandoned quarry that also backs onto a residential area.
FORD: For us, it will be a real eyesore at first, but the biggest problem will be the noise and energy. Where will this energy come from? We are talking about an enormous amount of energy.
KUKOLJA: Fellow farmer John Drife fears the project could affect the local water supply.
JOHN DRIFE: Well, a lot of people depend on that creek for their drinking water. Some use it for irrigation. Obviously there is a flow effect if they deplete the stream in the dry months.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: What about the data center?
KUKOLJA: Concerns about land, water and energy use have also arisen in city neighborhoods, where data center projects are planned or already underway. Residents of Melbourne’s west called for a pause in its implementation in August, captured here by The Westsider newspaper.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: We don’t want expansion. But we don’t want more data centers at all.
(APPLAUSE)
KUKOLJA: But data center construction in Australia is booming, with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia estimating investment could exceed $100 billion by 2030, behind only the United States and China. Microsoft and Amazon have already promised financing. Johanna Weaver, former Australian chief negotiator on cyber issues at the United Nations, says American companies are attracted to Australia because of its…
JOHANNA WEAVER: Geographic location, our access to clean, renewable energy, land availability and our democratic stability, as well as our alignment, which is important.
KUKOLJA: Other factors are also at play, says John Quiggin, an economics professor at the University of Queensland.
JOHN QUIGGIN: It’s just a hasty expansion, and of course they’re running into barriers in the United States. So in a sense, everyone believes that whoever spends the money the fastest will be the one who gets the monopoly.
KUKOLJA: And the national government is interested in attracting your investment, and companies like OpenAI and Anthropic will reap promising economic benefits. However, starting next year, large-scale developers will face stricter regulations on things like water efficiency and energy supply. But the biggest barrier to investment, says former UN negotiator Weaver, is Australia’s strict copyright protections.
WEAVER: The challenge is that companies say, well, we’ll come and train in Australia, but we need regulatory certainty that we won’t be prosecuted for violating copyright.
KUKOLJA: And adding fuel to the fire, he says, is last month’s revelation that an OpenAI agent accessed Australian government websites without authorization.
WEAVER: If you have products that cause harm, you will be responsible. I think it’s important that we don’t treat AI companies as a separate and distinct class.
KUKOLJA: The question is: who will hold them accountable? For NPR News, I’m Kristina Kukolja in Melbourne.
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