Amid growing demand, artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is increasing its data centre infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region, and hiring for 13 roles in its compute division, responsible for developing and managing data centres. Eight of these are based in Australia and Japan, according to job listings reviewed by CNBC.
The hiring push comes as Anthropic works to expand its computing capacity beyond the US. The company has already announced several data centre-related agreements in the US and previously advertised a Europe-based role focussed on negotiating compute capacity.
The company had said in a blog post in April that rapid growth in demand had placed pressure on its infrastructure, impacting reliability and performance.
One Australia-based job posting refers to Anthropic's "rapidly expanding AI compute footprint across the region" and mentions responsibility for leading multi-hundred-megawatt energy procurement efforts.
Experts cited by CNBC pointed to several factors that make Australia attractive for AI infrastructure investments, including available land, renewable energy potential, and stable regulatory environment. Australia’s participation in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance was also highlighted as a factor that could make the country an attractive location for AI computing infrastructure. Five Eyes is a security partnership between Australia, the US, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand.
The America-based artificial intelligence startup has also said that it intends to add capacity in countries with legal and regulatory frameworks that support large infrastructure investments and secure supply chains.
Japan is also drawing attention for AI infra. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a $10 billion investment in the country, while GMI Cloud unveiled a $12 billion AI project in April.
