Australia's AI build-out hits the grid: how a delayed power line wiped out AUD3 billion

Australia's push to become an AI infrastructure hub for the Asia-Pacific is running into constraints that capital alone cannot solve: the last mile of grid connection, and the consent of the communities that power lines run through. That shift became clear this month when NextDC, one of the country's largest data center operators, cut its fiscal 2027 revenue forecast and reduced capital spending after a power connection delay at its Melbourne M3 facility, a project that already had a hyperscale customer under contract.