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CBA’s economics team has produced an analysis of the AI data centre boom across Australia, based on the latest construction data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
In the June quarter of 2026 alone, the data centre project pipeline grew by 20.1%. This followed a 62.6% surge in the March quarter and places the pipeline at almost four times its size compared to a year ago.
The data centre building pipeline is now more than twice as large as that of office buildings, and as a share of GDP, data centre projects have risen from just 0.4% two years ago to now account for 2.5%:
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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
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