Southgate Melbourne · Melbourne, Australia

Last change recorded — · Last checked 2026-10-05

OwnerFirmus

Users—

IT power, end of 202641 MW

Planned end state41 MW

First power2026-08-09

Build-out completeno further build-out tracked

Power pathNo data yet

Binding stepNo data yet

First power vs announcedNo announced date on record

Full build-out vs announcedNo announced date on record

Utility / power partnersAusNet / CitiPower (territory estimate) (verify)

Recorded readiness — 0 of 6 applicable milestones have a dated public record

○ Land○ Permits○ Grid supply· Generation○ Water○ Financing○ Construction

Gate to first power — target 2026-08-09 (estimate) · path: unknown, generic steps assumed · each step must finish its lead time before the target

0 of 0 required steps have a public date. Red = recorded date past the rule-based deadline · grey "no public date" = required step without a record · green = on record in time · context steps never colour.

No dated steps on record.

This site is energized; lights only show how its recorded steps compared with the lead times.

Lead-time assumptions

Site secured 15 months before first power — Land under control and campus announced. Rarely binding; shown for context.
Permits in hand 0 months before first power — Final air and siting permits. Operators often energize on standard or temporary authorisations and receive the major permit later; flagged only when the permit lands more than 6 months after first power or is missing for an on-site plant.
Grid supply agreed 9 months before first power — Interconnection or large-load agreement approved. Observed median 7 months before first power; the physical works (substation, lines) run in parallel with construction.
Substation and lines energized 2 months before first power — Utility delivery point live; final tests before the load is taken.
New generation online 1 months before first power — Utility plant or on-site plant generating; needed just before energization when the grid cannot carry the load alone.
Major equipment on site 6 months before first power — Turbines, transformers, switchgear delivered; installation and commissioning take the remaining months.
Construction started 24 months before first power — Groundbreaking of the building that gives first power. Observed 4-26 months for recent AI campuses; Meta's redesigned campuses took 35-58.
Building ready for IT 0 months before first power — First building ready for IT. 'Complete' or 'opened' is usually reported after first power; flagged only beyond 3 months.
Full build-out complete -12 months before first power — All announced buildings operational. Comes after first power by design; context only.
Water supply secured 12 months before first power — Water rights, municipal agreement or desalination contract in hand. Context only; one of the feasibility items.
Financing closed 12 months before first power — Project financing, anchor lease or committed capital announced. Context only; not applicable when the owner is a hyperscaler building on its balance sheet.

Dated steps (from the sources; later dates are plans)

2026-08-09 First powerFirst power (Epoch) · ◐

Build-out timeline (Epoch AI; dated status notes with IT power; rows after today are estimates)

2022-12-26—Building 1 site is cleared/vacant land; no construction visible yet (based on Google Earth historical imagery).

2025-10-28—Satellite imagery shows 30 fully installed air-cooled chillers (20 fans each) on the roof, with room for many more. In the same month, Firmus [reported](https://firmus.co/newsroom/southgate-expansion) that Project Southg

2026-05-11—Building 1's cooling capacity increased to 53 air-cooled chillers (20 fans each), up from 30 in Oct 2025. This is more than enough for the announced 18,400 GB300 GPUs, but construction does not quite look complete, so we

2026-08-0941 MWBuilding 1 is operational (estimate). No additional chip deployment beyond the 18,400 GB300 GPUs has been publicly confirmed, so we continue to report the disclosed capacity allocated to Project Southgate, rather than sp

Recorded fact The site is energized.

Calculated requirement Energized; watch the build-out timeline for the next buildings.

Sources (Epoch AI selection): Firmus Expands Project Southgate Across Australia · Firmus Signs Multi-Year Agreement with Global Hyperscale Customer at Project Southgate · CDC Melbourne

Epoch AI, 'AI data centers', epoch.ai/data/ai-data-centers (CC BY 4.0); coordinates from GeoNames cities500 (CC BY 4.0) and hand-entered places; overrides in tools/project_overrides.csv with their own sources. Campuses outside the Epoch dataset come from tools/campuses.csv (public reporting, source per row). Data retrieved 2026-10-05. Report a correction to contact@ailoadmap.com (campus id southgate-melbourne; include the row and a source link).