US AI company Groq has expanded its AI inference footprint to Australia, with plans to invest USD 300 million, initially deploying its hardware in Equinix’s SY5 data centre in Sydney, as part of a global collaboration that already includes large-scale low-latency infrastructure in Europe and the US. The move brings Groq’s specialised Language Processing Unit (LPU) systems closer to Asia-Pacific enterprises seeking to keep data local while running production-grade AI models at speed.
The Australian deployment follows similar rollouts in the US and in Helsinki, where Groq and Equinix jointly built a European site designed to meet strict privacy, sovereignty and performance requirements. In Europe, the partners have promoted the ability to stand up Groq environments rapidly – Helsinki went live in around a month – while offering low-latency connectivity across major hubs such as Frankfurt, London and Amsterdam.
The Australia launch extends that model into a region facing similar governance and latency demands. Australia has emerged as a key market for hosting AI infrastructure. The Australian AI market is growing significantly and is projected to be worth USD 315 billion by 2028, according to The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
In Sydney, Groq will operate a 4.5MW facility hosted by Equinix, intended to be one of Australia’s largest high-speed AI inference installations. The companies say the site is engineered to support low-latency access to GroqCloud for production AI workloads and provide direct interconnection via Equinix Fabric, allowing organisations to keep sensitive workloads within national borders while avoiding the public internet.
Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy Andrew Charlton said the government welcomed responsible investment in data-centre capacity. “The Australian Government is welcoming responsible data centre investment. We are continuing to work to attract more because we know this is required for a successful digital economy. Australia is a natural home for this type of world class capability,” he said.
Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht said advances in compute infrastructure could accelerate creativity for millions of users, while Groq founder and CEO Jonathan Ross said the expansion was part of addressing global shortages in accessible AI compute. “The world doesn’t have enough compute for everyone to build AI,” he said.
Scott Albin, Groq’s APAC general manager, said more than half the company’s global developer base is already in the region, making Sydney a priority. Cyrus Adaggra, Equinix’s Asia-Pacific president, said Groq’s rapid scaling demonstrated the value of Equinix’s global footprint, while Equinix Australia managing director Guy Danskine said the partnership would help organisations meet performance and sovereignty requirements.
“We are thrilled Groq selected Equinix Australia to serve organisations in the country and the broader Asia-Pacific region, bringing high-performance AI inference capacity closer to enterprises and governments,” said Danskine. “This collaboration highlights the power of Equinix Fabric in enabling secure, low-latency connectivity for AI workloads, helping organisations accelerate innovation while ensuring compliance with the local data sovereignty and privacy requirements.”