The Iran war appears to be having little impact on Australia's data centre boom, but households are starting to feel the pinch.
Private capital expenditure jumped 6.5 per cent in the first three months of 2026, smashing consensus expectations of a 1.2 per cent rise, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday.
That was driven by a near tripling in spending on information media and telecommunications equipment to a record $6 billion in the quarter.
It followed a similar spike in the three months to September 2025, ABS head of business statistics Tom Lay said.
"The lift in investment was the result of investment in data centre equipment, specifically server racks and processing equipment, significantly boosting overall investment figures," Mr Lay said.
