Spotlight - Data Centres in Economic Statistics

It is generally the case that the corporations that construct, operate and ultimately own data centres will either be Australian based data centre operators or Australian entities set up by overseas based multinational corporations from the Information, Media and Telecommunications industry. For these large multinational corporations, an Australian entity will normally be established to construct and ultimately own and operate the Australian based data centre. 

Those businesses which are primarily engaged in the provision of data centre services are included within Division J, the Information Media and Telecommunications industry, within the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC).

Financing arrangements for the construction and operation of the Australian data centre can be done in a variety of ways depending on the individual business. For example, the local entity could be funded from within the group by its overseas related entity. The local entity may also raise funds directly, either from domestic or offshore sources through issuance of debt or equity, or direct lending from a financial institution. 

Depending on the structure of these arrangements, the financial flows and investment relationships are included in the Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth under the relevant sectoral balance sheet and financial instruments.   

Funding from overseas sources are recorded as International Investment and can be seen in the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position publication. When the funding from overseas results in ownership of the local entity of greater than 10%, this is referred to as Foreign Direct Investment, and Portfolio investment where the ownership is below 10%.

Prior to a final investment decision being made, there may be some initial spending by the Australian entity such as engineering and design costs for the data centre. These expenditures are capitalised and recorded as investment in "Buildings and Structures" by the "Information Media and Telecommunications" industry. These impacts can be seen in the Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure, Australia (Capex) publication. 

In Capex, businesses also report estimates of future investment intentions for the current and next financial years through what is known as the “seven estimates”. During the pre-build stage, the company will start to report the expected spend on the construction and fit out of the data centre. These are included in the Capex publication as “expected” expenditure and provides an early indicator of how much investment will come through in future periods. 

In the December quarter 2025, businesses in the Information, Media and Telecommunication industry expected to spend $19.2bn in the 2025/26 financial year, an increase of 51.7% compared to the previous year. The December quarter 2025 release also includes the first estimate of expected spend for 2026-27 financial year, which at $20.1b was up 74.9% compared to the first estimate of 2025-26 (Figure 1).

Prior to construction commencing, the business will lodge an application with the relevant government authority to undertake the building of the data centre. Once it is approved, the Building Approvals publication captures the expected total value of the building, which is classified under the category “Commercial Building not elsewhere classified”. Data on approvals can be volatile, but recently there have been large approvals related to data centres.  (Figure 2)

As construction work on the site commences, the Building Activity publication captures the value of the work done to construct the building and structure component of the data centre. This includes the physical building itself and the installation of rigid, integral building fixtures such as ‘racking’ components. Computer hardware and other equipment are excluded from the value recorded in building activity. 

Within the building activity publication data centres are classified under the category “Commercial Building not elsewhere classified”. In September 2025, the value of work done in this category was around $1.03b and has increased by 246% since March 2022 (Figure 3):

Along with the value of work done, the publication provides the ability to track commencements and completions providing insights into the time it takes to complete construction, and the value of work that remains to be completed. 

The construction of the data centre is also captured in the Capex publication and is recorded under the "Building and Structures" series within the "Information, Media and Telecommunications" industry. 

There can be some minor differences between the values published in Building Activity and Capex publications. The Capex values are based on progress payments made by the owner of the data centre, while building activity estimates are based on the value of work done as the building is fixed into place.

Any imported materials used in the construction of the data centre will be captured in the monthly International Trade in Goods and the quarterly Balance of Payments publication.

Once construction of the physical building is completed, the hardware and infrastructure required to operate the data centre are installed. This can include a range of components such as computer and networking hardware, power supplies and cooling equipment. Expenditure on these components are excluded from Building activity but are included in the Capex publication under "Equipment, Plant and Machinery" within the "Information, Media and Telecommunications" industry. In the September quarter 2025, this series reached a record high of $2.6b, up 61.8% in the quarter and 143.1% higher than the previous year (Figure 4).

Like the construction of the building, any imported equipment used in the fit out of the data centre are included in the monthly International Trade in Goods and the quarterly Balance of Payments publication. The key import categories are: 

• International merchandise trade statistics: Standard International Trade Classification (SITC): ‘SITC 75 – Office and ADP machines’
• Balance of payments statistics: BOPBEC classification (BOPBEC): ‘Capital goods - ADP equipment’ 

Imports of data centre equipment have also increased at the same time as increased investment seen in the Capex publication (Figure 5).

Note that any software required to operate the data centre are not included in the Capex or Imports of Goods series. Annual estimates for software can be found in the Australian Industry publication, and any imported software will be included in imports of services in the Balance of Payments publication.

Once the data centre is completed, it will begin generating income through charging clients for services including data storage and cloud computing. The income will be included in Sales and Service Income in the Business Indicators publication under the "Information, Media and Telecommunications" series. Wages and profits data are also available. 

To the extent Australian data centres provide services directly to non-residents, this will be recorded as an export of a service within the Balance of Payments publication. This may be through "Charges for the Use of Intellectual Property n.i.e", "Telecommunication, Computer and Information Services" and "Other Business Services", depending on the underlying service being provided by the data centre. Conversely any Australian business that purchases services directly from an overseas data centre will be recorded as an import of the service. 

Additional details about the data centre’s income, expenses, employment and labour costs, profits and capital investment are published annually through the Australian Industry publication. 

Data centres can be intensive users of energy and water, as key components such as servers and cooling equipment, can consume large amounts of electricity to run optimally. Detailed information on energy consumption and sources of electricity can be found in the Energy Account and Water Account.