Australia's National AI Plan 2025: key takeaways
30 January 2026
Australia’s National AI Plan 2025 sets out a whole‑of‑economy strategy to unlock the opportunities of artificial intelligence while strengthening national security, digital capability and responsible technology governance. Central to this vision is the critical role of data centres – forming the backbone of AI model training, deployment and compute capacity. The Plan signals a new phase of government support for digital infrastructure, with streamlined investment pathways, a clearer regulatory environment and heightened expectations around sustainability, privacy, cybersecurity and responsible AI.
This briefing provides data centre developers, operators, investors and customers with a practical overview of the policies and regulatory directions most relevant to their operations in Australia. It highlights what the Plan means in practice – from national data centre principles and energy requirements to privacy reforms, sovereign data considerations and emerging global standards – helping organisations understand where government priorities are heading and how to position themselves for future growth. It follows the UK's AI Action Plan released in January 2025, which we unpack here.
Consistent with the investment themes set out in the Plan, the Victorian Government released its AI Mission Statement on 30 January 2026 positioning Victoria to lead the nation in artificial intelligence including through investment into data centres and digital infrastructure.
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