NSW's New Data Centre Framework: Why SCX Was Already Ahead of the Curve

The NSW Government has just launched a new framework that changes the rules for data centre development in this state. Starting this week, developers who want their applications assessed within 75 days will need to meet requirements covering renewable energy, water efficiency, community impact and local skills investment. The message from Treasurer Daniel Mookhey was blunt: data centre builders need to "bring power, not take it."

For SCX, this announcement is a validation of our vision for high performance, efficient and sovereign AI.

Built to This Standard From Day One

Our infrastructure was built on a set of principles that the NSW Government has now made into a regulatory standard. When we deployed our sovereign AI inference node at Equinix SY5 in Sydney, we chose SambaNova's ASIC architecture for one fundamental reason: it delivers dramatically better performance per watt than GPU-based alternatives. Our systems run at roughly two and a half to five times the efficiency of comparable GPU infrastructure.

That is not a marketing claim — it is the reason we can offer sovereign AI inference at a price point that makes sense for Australian enterprises and government agencies, without passing the cost of infrastructure inefficiency onto customers.

The Water Question

The water question is where this gets more interesting. The new NSW framework was driven in part by community concerns about data centre water consumption, particularly in Western Sydney where evaporative cooling towers are a live issue for residents living near new developments.

SCX does not use water cooling. Our SambaNova-based architecture is air-cooled by design, which means our operational footprint does not compete with local water supplies in the way that hyperscaler GPU facilities do. That is a real differentiator in the current environment, and one we intend to make much more of.

Renewable Energy commitments

On renewable energy, the framework requires developers to enter into power purchasing agreements with renewable providers. Our smaller power footprint per token makes those commitments more credible and more achievable. We are already positioned as the infrastructure partner that does more with less energy — and the NSW framework rewards exactly that.

A Faster Path to Expansion

There are 19 data centre applications currently in the NSW planning pipeline. The developers who can demonstrate compliance with these standards will move faster and face less regulatory friction.

For SCX, if we are expanding capacity at Equinix SY5 — and we have signalled that conversation clearly — the framework gives us a faster, more certain pathway to do so. More broadly, as the NSW Office of AI takes shape and begins coordinating public-sector AI investment, we want to be the infrastructure partner that regulators already know meets the standard before the question is even asked.

Responsible Infrastructure

The community backlash against data centre expansion is real and deserves a serious answer. "Stop the Slop" is not an irrational response to undifferentiated infrastructure that consumes water, draws significant power, and offers no local benefit.

The answer is not fewer data centres — Australia needs more sovereign AI capacity — but it should be better infrastructure, built to a standard that communities can accept. That is exactly what SCX is building.

We are not waiting for regulation to tell us what responsible infrastructure looks like. We built it that way from the start. The NSW framework simply confirms we were right.

To learn more about SCX's sovereign AI infrastructure and how we can support your organisation, visit scx.ai or reach out to our team.

Further Reading

For more information on the NSW Government's new data centre framework, see ABC News: Data centres fast-tracked under new NSW scheme.