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US Chip Giants Drive Global AI Demand

By Jonson Cunny •
US Chip Giants Drive Global AI Demand

Article draft (<600 words)

The AI trade still starts in the US. Nvidia’s data‑centre GPUs and Micron’s high‑bandwidth memory are the core components of the current build‑out, and both companies have spent the past year reorganising around that demand. Nvidia continues to report “more demand than we can possibly supply” for its AI chips, while Micron has created a dedicated cloud‑memory unit to serve hyperscale customers and HBM orders for leading GPU platforms. That combination—compute plus ultra‑fast memory—is what’s powering the new wave of data‑centre spending worldwide.[5][6]

Australia is not trying to compete with this at the chip‑foundry level, but it is plugged into the build‑out one layer up. ASX‑listed data‑centre operators and network providers are effectively selling the powered, cooled boxes and connectivity that those Nvidia and Micron‑driven systems need. NEXTDC, for example, is widely described as Australia’s leading independent data‑centre operator, and industry research suggests national data‑centre capacity could more than double from about 1,350 megawatts in 2024 to over 3,000 megawatts by 2030 as AI workloads scale. New “AI factory” campuses, designed for dense racks of liquid‑cooled Nvidia hardware, are being pitched directly at hyperscalers and government clients.[2][3][4][7][8]

Around that physical layer sit firms like Megaport, which provides the high‑speed network fabric linking data‑centres and cloud regions. Recent deals to move “up the stack” into offering compute closer to users—through acquisitions focused on low‑latency workloads—are explicitly framed as a play on AI inference and edge compute rather than just a generic cloud story. Analysts covering these stocks now talk less about “tech” in the abstract and more about very specific AI‑driven metrics: contracted utilisation, power secured, cross‑connects, and how quickly management can turn commitments from US cloud customers into recurring revenue.[3][4][7][1][2]

There is also an emerging, but still small, semiconductor angle onshore. Market researchers estimate Australia’s semiconductor market at roughly 2.9–14 billion dollars in the mid‑2020s depending on definition, with government moves toward a National Semiconductor Manufacturing Hub and a broader National Semiconductor Strategy aimed at reducing total import dependence over the next decade. For now, though, local chip‑related stocks tend to be niche design or memory‑adjacent plays rather than full‑scale alternatives to US or Asian fabs, which limits how directly they can track Nvidia‑style upside.[9][10][2]

So can Australian tech “keep up” with the AI trade? In index terms, probably not: the Nasdaq’s leaders remain the global price‑setters for AI chips and cloud margins. But at the thematic level, ASX names can still offer serious leverage to the same trend, provided investors treat them as infrastructure and enablement businesses whose fortunes depend on long‑term utilisation, power and pricing, rather than as local versions of Nvidia in disguise. The more that AI workloads physically land in Australian data‑centres and on domestic networks, the more that global chip momentum will matter to local earnings rather than just to offshore portfolios.[4][11][1][2][3][5]

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.