‘FROM PRINTING STORIES TO PRODUCING INTELLIGENCE’
The establishment of M4 Melbourne is underway in Australia for data center developer NEXTDC. Port Melbourne, located in the southeastern state of Victoria, was identified as the site for a planned A$1.2 billion digital campus. This particular site was once home to Australia’s largest newspaper press, known as the Westgate Park Printing Complex. (See Site Selection’s November 2024 story about projects making news where the news used to be printed.) NEXTDC’s project aims to boost the state’s positioning as a national digital infrastructure hub as details also include an AI factory, a Mission Critical Operations Center and a Technology Center of Excellence. “This isn’t just a data center — it’s critical infrastructure for Australia’s AI future,” said NEXTDC CEO and Managing Director Craig Scroggie. “M4 has been designed to meet the five critical imperatives for Australia’s AI future — speed,
scale, sovereign capability, sustainability and security.” The sovereign AI factory will be capable of delivering rack densities beyond 1,000 kilowatts to support model training and more, while the Technology Center of Excellence is set to be a national hub for AI skill training, R&D and innovation to grow Australia’s deep tech ecosystem. In all the project is anticipated to create thousands of jobs, becoming a lasting resource for workforce development and AI innovation in Melbourne. M4 also will anchor the Fishermans Bend Innovation Precinct — “a nationally strategic hub for advanced
manufacturing, aerospace, sovereign defense and deep tech,” a NEXTDC release stated..
Photo courtesy of Tosoh Corportation
WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS DEMAND
Global chemicals and specialty materials manufacturer Tosoh Corporation announced that new investment is heading toward the company’s Shunan City operations, found in Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture. The expansion will scale production capacity of Tosoh’s SKYPRENE® chloroprene rubber, a functional polymer used in diverse ways including for adhesives, belts, hoses and medical gloves. The product performs well in many industry applications due to its resistance to weather, fire and oil. The $514 million investment will bring a new production facility to the company’s Nanyo Complex, increasing current capacity at the site to 22,000 metric tons of synthetic rubber per year. Construction is set to move forward in spring of 2027, with commercial operations at the second facility expected to ramp up in 2030.
Photo courtesy of Dalfen Industrial
FOXCONN JOINS THE AI PARTY IN HOUSTON
Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxconn has made moves to acquire Houston’s Fairbanks Logistics Park with plans to deliver a new $450 million AI server manufacturing plant. The 1-million-sq.-ft., four-building industrial campus was purchased from Dalfen Industrial for a reported $142 million, following news of Apple’s plans to construct a 250,000-sq.-ft. AI manufacturing facility in the Texas city in February. In addition to being a major supplier to Apple, Foxconn additionally shares a partnership with Nvidia. The tech giant announced in April that the company would be collaborating with Foxconn to construct an AI supercomputer manufacturing facility in Houston which is expected to become operational in 2026. This new facility, combined with capacity from separately planned site in Dallas, will support Nvidia in manufacturing AI supercomputers for the first time in the country. The Greater Houston Partnership has reported that Foxconn’s project is anticipated to create 600 direct jobs and carry an estimated $920 million economic impact.
Reports compiled and written by Alexis Elmore
