MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Facing legal challenges and public backlash at home, American tech giants have been looking abroad for new opportunities, and Australia is high on their list. But as Kristina Kukolja reports from Melbourne, the reception down under may not be quite as warm as they would hope.
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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 Australia's largest goldfields. Now, the vast farmland outside Melbourne is the setting for a medium-sized data center being proposed by Australian developer RV Energy.
ALAN FORD: We know nothing. No one has told us anything to do with this data center. We've heard it by hearsay in the media.
KUKOLJA: That's Alan Ford, a fifth-generation farmer whose land borders the planned site, an abandoned quarry that also faces a residential area.
FORD: For us, it's going to be a real eyesore to start with, but the biggest problem is going to be noise and the energy. Where's this energy going to come from? We're talking about a massive amount of energy.
KUKOLJA: Fellow farmer John Drife fears the project could affect local water supply.
JOHN DRIFE: Well, a lot of people do rely on that creek for stock water. Some use it for irrigation. There's obviously an on-flow effect if they deplete the creek in the dry months.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: What about the data center?
KUKOLJA: Concerns about land, water and energy use have flared up in city neighborhoods, too, where data center projects are planned or already underway. Residents in Melbourne's west called for a pause in their rollout in August, captured here by The Westsider newspaper.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: We don't want expansion. But we don't want any more data centers at all.
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KUKOLJA: But data center construction in Australia is booming, with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia estimating investment could exceed $100 billion by 2030, trailing only the U.S. and China. Microsoft and Amazon have already pledged funding. Johanna Weaver, a former Australian lead negotiator on cyber issues at the United Nations, says American companies are drawn to Australia for its...
JOHANNA WEAVER: Geographical location, our access to clean and renewable energy, the availability of land and our democratic stability - plus, our alignment, which is important.
KUKOLJA: Other factors are in play, too, says John Quiggin, a professor of economics at the University of Queensland.
JOHN QUIGGIN: It's just headlong expansion, and of course, they're running into barriers in the U.S. So in some sense, they all believe that the one who spends the money fastest will be the one who gets the monopoly.
KUKOLJA: And the national government is keen to attract their investment, promising economic benefits will flow from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. From next year, though, large-scale developers will face tougher regulations over things like water efficiency and power supply. But the biggest barrier to investments, says the former U.N. negotiator Weaver, are Australia's strict copyright protections.
WEAVER: The challenge is the companies say, well, we will come and train in Australia, but we need regulatory certainty that we are not going to be prosecuted for breaching copyright.
KUKOLJA: And adding fuel to the fire, she 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 are held accountable. I think it's important that we don't treat AI companies like a separate and distinct class.
KUKOLJA: The question is, she asks, who will hold them to account? For NPR News, I'm Kristina Kukolja in Melbourne.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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