How Much Does a Data Centre Cost and What Does It Earn
A new data centre in Australia costs about A$13 million to A$18 million per megawatt to build, before the land. Once it is full and contracted, it earns around A$2 million of EBITDA a year per megawatt, on the listed operators' figures. A new building can take years to fill, and until it does it may earn less than its interest bill. Part 2 of 4 works through what that means for the A$1 billion building from Part 1, and how long it takes to fill.
A data centre in Australia costs about A$13 million to A$18 million per megawatt of IT load to build, before the land, on the figures the listed operators publish. Once it is full and its customers are billing, it earns around A$2 million of EBITDA a year for each megawatt.
This piece takes the A$1 billion building from Part 1 and works through what it costs, what it earns and how long it takes to fill. Section 8.00 turns the operators' figures into a theoretical model. Section 9.00 is Samso's reading of the evidence.
READING THE SERIES The Business of Data Centres runs in four parts. Part 1. Where in Australia a new A$1 billion data centre could be built, comparing power, the grid queue, electricity prices, planning and fibre. Part 2, this piece. The economics of a megawatt. What a data centre costs to build and run, and what it earns, using the figures the listed operators publish. Part 3. The listed operators, NEXTDC, Macquarie Technology, DigiCo, Goodman and Infratil through CDC, and how their business models compare. Part 4. The ASX companies with data centre land, power or equipment projects, tested against the steps a project must pass before it earns revenue. Earlier Samso Insights on the theme cover ASX data centre stocks, ASX AI stocks and five ASX small caps with AI data centre land. |
A NOTE ON THE VOCABULARY AND THE SOURCES Technical terms are explained in plain English where they first appear, and all of them are collected in one box at the back, above the references. Every source carries an identifier, [R1] to [R16], and that identifier appears in the body text at the point the source is used, so any figure can be traced to the document it came from. Where the arithmetic is Samso's, the piece says so and shows the sum. Where a company's documents give two different figures or labels for the same thing, both are quoted as published, with the document each came from. Section 8.00 builds a theoretical model from released data. A model is not a prediction. Every figure carries its date. This piece quotes no share prices. |
WHAT THIS PIECE COVERS 1.00 WHAT IT COSTS TO BUILD A MEGAWATT About A$13 million to A$18 million per megawatt of IT load, before the land About A$3.9 million of revenue a year for each billed megawatt at NEXTDC Power is NEXTDC's largest cost line, and much of it is recharged to customers About A$1.8 million to A$2.3 million a year, on four different measures 5.00 HOW LONG A DATA CENTRE TAKES TO FILL NEXTDC's Victorian margin passed 80 per cent within four years Senior debt at about 6 per cent, and large spending plans 7.00 HOW LONG THE CONTRACTS RUN Leases of 13 to 27 years at the largest operators 8.00 THE A$1 BILLION, WORKED THROUGH A theoretical model on the operators' figures 9.00 WHAT SAMSO READS FROM THE NUMBERS Yields of about 12 to 15 per cent once full, and years of filling before that |
1.00 — WHAT IT COSTS TO BUILD A MEGAWATT
About A$13 million to A$18 million per megawatt of IT load, before the land
Part 1 looked at where in Australia a new A$1 billion data centre could be built. This part uses the listed operators' figures to work out what that A$1 billion builds, what the building costs to run and what it earns once customers move in.
A data centre is sized in megawatts (MW) of IT load. That is the power the servers can draw, not the power used by the cooling plant and the rest of the building. The operators price and report their business per megawatt, so this part uses it too.
Infratil publishes a build cost per megawatt for CDC Data Centres. CDC was 49.72 per cent owned by Infratil (ASX: IFT) at 31 March 2026 [R16]. Infratil's results presentation for that year says CDC's capital spending per MW of IT capacity varies by site, "with current $/MW averages in the mid-teens (excluding land)" [R1]. As in Part 1, Samso reads that as roughly A$13 million to A$17 million per megawatt.
DigiCo Infrastructure REIT (ASX: DGT) gives a second check. It estimates about A$1.2 billion of capital spending over the 2027 and 2028 financial years. That money is to bring 52 MW at its SYD1 site in Sydney and 15 MW at ADL1 in Adelaide into billing [R5]. On Samso's arithmetic, A$1.2 billion over 67 MW is about A$17.9 million per megawatt. DigiCo does not split that sum into building, fit-out and other costs, so it is a rough guide only. PLATE 01 shows the inside of SYD1.
The land is extra. Macquarie Technology Group (ASX: MAQ) bought a site in Sydney for a planned campus of about 200 MW, at a total land cost of A$254 million including the purchase price of A$240 million [R6]. On Samso's arithmetic that is about A$1.2 million to A$1.3 million of land for each planned megawatt. That is one site in one city, so it shows the order of the cost, not a market rate.
Put together, the A$1 billion budget from Part 1 builds about 59 MW to 77 MW of IT load at A$13 million to A$17 million a megawatt. At the middle of the range, A$15 million, it builds about 67 MW. DigiCo's A$17.9 million is a little above that range. Land for 67 MW at Macquarie Technology's price per megawatt would add about A$80 million to A$85 million. These are Samso's sums on the company figures above.
2.00 — WHAT A MEGAWATT EARNS
About A$3.9 million of revenue a year for each billed megawatt at NEXTDC
Of the listed operators in this series, only NEXTDC (ASX: NXT) publishes revenue per megawatt. FIG. 01 is its chart. In the year to 30 June 2026 it earned about A$3.9 million of revenue for each megawatt it billed [R3]. That figure includes power passthrough. That is electricity NEXTDC buys and recharges to customers whose power use is metered and billed separately.
The figure rose to a peak in 2024 and has fallen for two years since. NEXTDC's chart shows A$4.0 million per megawatt in the 2021 and 2022 financial years, A$4.5 million in 2023 and A$4.9 million in 2024. It then fell to A$4.3 million in 2025 and A$3.9 million in 2026 [R3]. NEXTDC titles the slide "lower rate, longer contracts, higher returns".
NEXTDC puts the fall down to its mix of customers. More than 70 per cent of its billing capacity now comes from hyperscale customers [R3]. A hyperscale customer is one of the very large cloud and AI companies that take whole data halls on long contracts. They usually pay less per megawatt than a business renting a few racks, which are the cabinets that hold the servers. They also take many more megawatts on longer contracts.
NEXTDC says these hyperscale developments now target a yield on cost of more than 10 per cent. It defines yield on cost as the earnings of a facility divided by what it originally cost [R3]. In plain terms, NEXTDC earns less per megawatt from its largest customers, and it expects a good return on what it spends to serve them.
3.00 — WHAT IT COSTS TO RUN
Power is NEXTDC's largest cost line, and much of it is recharged to customers
NEXTDC's results show where the money goes. In the 2026 financial year it had total revenue of A$496.5 million. Direct costs, which NEXTDC says are mostly the power its customers use, took A$91.5 million. That left net revenue of A$405.0 million. Facility costs took A$78.8 million and corporate costs A$77.4 million, leaving underlying EBITDA of A$248.8 million [R3].
EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. It is the usual measure of what a data centre earns from running, before the cost of the money used to build it. NEXTDC's underlying EBITDA was about 61 per cent of its net revenue, on Samso's arithmetic.
DigiCo shows the same pattern. In the 2026 financial year it earned A$33.7 million of power and other revenue against A$23.3 million of power costs. Both figures include its US sites [R5]. Where power is metered and recharged, the customer pays for the electricity it uses. The operator still pays for the building, the cooling plant, the staff and the grid connection.
The electricity bill is still large. A data centre uses more power than its servers draw, because the cooling plant and the rest of the building need power too. In the industry this is measured as power usage effectiveness (PUE), the total power a site uses divided by the power its servers use. A PUE of 1.3 means another 0.3 MW goes to cooling and the rest of the building for every 1 MW the servers draw.
One megawatt of IT load running flat out all year, at a PUE of 1.3 and an assumed delivered price of A$120 per megawatt hour, costs about A$1.37 million a year in electricity. This is Samso's arithmetic, 1 MW times 1.3 times 8,760 hours times A$120. Real sites rarely run flat out, so this is an upper figure. Part 1 found wholesale prices averaging about A$70 to A$103 per megawatt hour over two years in the states on the National Electricity Market (NEM), the shared grid of the eastern and southern states [R10]. Samso set the A$120 above those averages to allow for network charges and retail costs.
NEXTDC reports a PUE of 1.49 across its operating sites in the 2026 financial year. Its remuneration report gives 1.48, measured on an internal basis that allows for sites still filling up [R4]. Macquarie Technology gives a design PUE of 1.28 for its existing IC3 building [R7]. A design figure is what the building is meant to achieve, not a measured result. NEXTDC's measured PUE is higher than the 1.3 in the sum above, so on its figure the electricity bill per megawatt would be larger.
Margins look very different depending on where they are measured. NEXTDC's Victorian sites earned facility EBITDA of 87 per cent of net revenue in the 2026 financial year, before head office costs [R3]. CDC's EBITDAF was 74 per cent of its net revenue [R2]. EBITDAF is Infratil's version of EBITDA. It also leaves out derivative movements, revaluations, impairments, gains or losses on selling investments and some one-off costs. Macquarie Technology's data centre segment earned 46 per cent [R6].
DigiCo's underlying EBITDA was about 53 per cent of its underlying revenue, on Samso's arithmetic [R5]. That includes its US sites and A$37 million of rent received before two buildings were complete. Macquarie Technology's segment includes A$33.6 million of revenue from other parts of the group [R7]. So the four margins are measured at different levels and are not directly comparable. What they have in common is that each keeps about half or more of its revenue as EBITDA.
4.00 — EBITDA PER MEGAWATT
About A$1.8 million to A$2.3 million a year, on four different measures
Revenue per megawatt includes power that is recharged to customers. EBITDA per megawatt is the better guide to what the building itself earns. No operator publishes it directly, so TABLE 01 builds it from four sets of company figures. Each one divides by a different kind of megawatt, which the table names.
![TABLE 01 — Four ways to measure EBITDA per megawatt all land near A$2 million a year. Columns: Operator, EBITDA used, Megawatts divided by, EBITDA per MW a year. Row 1. Operator: NEXTDC, year to 30 June 2026; EBITDA used: Underlying EBITDA A$248.8m; Megawatts divided by: About 127 MW, the average billed implied by A$496.5m of revenue at A$3.9m per MW; EBITDA per MW a year: About A$1.95m. Row 2. Operator: CDC Data Centres, year to 31 March 2026; EBITDA used: EBITDAF A$392.5m; Megawatts divided by: 220 MW of IT capacity at year end, labelled invoiced in one Infratil document and contracted in another; EBITDA per MW a year: About A$1.78m. Row 3. Operator: CDC Data Centres, management estimate, September 2026; EBITDA used: About A$2.2bn a year once fully deployed; Megawatts divided by: 1.1 GW of contracted capacity; EBITDA per MW a year: About A$2.0m. Row 4. Operator: DigiCo Australia, management estimate, August 2026; EBITDA used: About A$250m a year once stable; Megawatts divided by: 108 MW of planned Australian billing capacity; EBITDA per MW a year: About A$2.3m. Source: Samso arithmetic on company figures from NEXTDC [R3], Infratil [R1] [R2] [R14] and DigiCo [R5]. CDC figures are for 100 per cent of CDC. Each row divides by a different kind of megawatt, so the rows are not averaged. The last two rows are management estimates of future earnings, not results.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/8d6c37_370ad3fec91340f6aa65a5198fceb2ed~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_821,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/8d6c37_370ad3fec91340f6aa65a5198fceb2ed~mv2.jpg)
The four figures fall between about A$1.8 million and A$2.3 million of EBITDA a year for each megawatt. Two of them are management estimates of what the business will earn once its contracted capacity is built and billing. FIG. 02 is CDC's chart of that path. Its EBITDAF rose from A$271 million in the 2024 financial year to A$392 million in 2026 [R1]. In September 2026 CDC raised its guidance for 2027 to A$710 million to A$750 million, after signing another 70 MW. It now has 1.1 GW contracted, which it expects to earn A$2.2 billion of EBITDAF a year once fully deployed [R14].
FIG. 03 is DigiCo's path. Its Australian billing capacity rose from 21 MW to 41 MW over the 2026 financial year. DigiCo plans to reach 108 MW by the end of the 2028 financial year, adding 52 MW at SYD1 and 15 MW at ADL1 [R5]. At its results the 52 MW rested on letters of intent, which are written statements that customers intend to sign. On 15 October 2026 DigiCo signed a 71 MW, 15-year contract with a global technology company, subject to customary conditions and approvals. It includes 20 MW moved from an existing customer, and SYD1 is now fully contracted at 88 MW [R13]. DigiCo estimates the Australian platform would earn about A$250 million of EBITDA a year once stable [R5].
Taken together, the four figures say a full and contracted megawatt in Australia earns around A$2 million of EBITDA a year.
5.00 — HOW LONG A DATA CENTRE TAKES TO FILL
NEXTDC's Victorian margin passed 80 per cent within four years
The earnings in section 4.00 come from megawatts that are contracted and billing. A new building opens empty and fills over time. Part 1 noted that operators told the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) they expect a new facility to take five to ten years to reach its full load [R9].
FIG. 04 charts NEXTDC's case study of its Victorian sites, M1, M2 and M3 in Melbourne. Net revenue grew from A$14.5 million in the 2014 financial year to A$157.6 million in 2026. The facility EBITDA margin rose from 48 per cent in 2014 to 83 per cent in 2018, and was 87 per cent in 2026 [R3]. NEXTDC notes that its figures from 2019 onward follow new accounting standards, so the early and late years do not compare exactly. The three buildings opened at different times, so the chart shows a campus that grew as well as buildings that filled.
The same table shows how far the spending runs ahead. By 30 June 2026 NEXTDC had spent A$2,095.1 million on fit-out in Victoria, which is the halls, power and cooling equipment installed inside the buildings. Its property there was carried at A$1,527.4 million at cost [R3]. On Samso's arithmetic, the A$137.5 million of facility EBITDA in 2026 is about 3.8 per cent of those two amounts together. Part of that spending is for M3 capacity that was not yet billing, so the figure understates what a full site earns. It shows how much capital is tied up in buildings that are still filling.
CDC gives a second view. Its rack utilisation fell from 78 per cent to 62 per cent over the year to 31 March 2026, as it added 353 MW of new capacity [R2]. Infratil says CDC's measure includes white space, the floor area built for customers' IT equipment, and space reserved for customers. So it is not the same as the 27 per cent of connection capacity that AEMO measured in Part 1. What the fall shows is that new capacity arrives in large blocks and takes time to fill.
Contracted capacity also needs power before it can bill. On 21 October 2026 NEXTDC said Jemena, which runs the electricity network in that part of Melbourne, does not expect to restart its suspended works to increase supply to M3 before February 2027. NEXTDC now expects the next increase in grid supply to M3 in its 2028 financial year. It took about A$140 million out of both its 2027 net revenue guidance and its underlying EBITDA guidance, the amount it had expected from the affected contracts [R12]. The customer has signed. Some of its capacity is already billing, but the existing grid supply cannot support the full contracted ramp until the power arrives [R12].
6.00 — HOW IT IS FUNDED
Senior debt at about 6 per cent, and large spending plans
Most of the cost of a data centre is usually paid before the first customer is billed, so the interest rate on the borrowed money has a large effect on the return. The operators' published costs of senior debt are close together. CDC's weighted average cost of debt was about 6 per cent [R1]. DigiCo's was 6.0 per cent including commitment fees [R5]. NEXTDC capitalised interest on its general borrowings at 5.74 per cent in the 2026 financial year [R4].
Debt that ranks below the banks usually costs more. NEXTDC's subordinated notes carry an effective rate of 8.2 per cent after hedging [R3]. Macquarie Technology's loan note had a weighted average effective rate of 7.49 per cent [R7]. Macquarie Technology's bank facility rate of 5.45 per cent applied to only A$3.5 million drawn from its A$500 million facility, so it says little about its cost of debt. NEXTDC's A$1.1 billion of convertible notes, issued in September 2026, pay 1.75 per cent and rank with its subordinated notes. The low rate is paid for with the holders' right to convert into NEXTDC shares at a 32.5 per cent premium [R15].
The spending plans are large. NEXTDC spent A$3,397 million in the 2026 financial year [R3]. In October 2026 it cut its 2027 guidance to A$4,500 million to A$5,000 million, which now includes about A$230 million of capitalised interest, and put all new development projects and land acquisitions on hold [R12]. CDC spent A$2,113.3 million in the year to March 2026 and guides to A$3,800 million to A$4,200 million for the year to March 2027, excluding land [R2] [R1]. Macquarie Technology guides to A$485 million to A$506 million, including the Sydney land, and DigiCo to A$300 million to A$500 million [R6] [R5].
Leverage at CDC shows how much debt a contracted business can carry. At 31 March 2026 CDC's net debt was 9.4 times its EBITDAF on its basis, which uses run-rate earnings and includes shareholder loans [R2]. On a simple division of net external debt of A$4,880.9 million by reported EBITDAF of A$392.5 million it is about 12.4 times. That is Samso's arithmetic on a different basis. In plain terms, CDC carries debt of roughly nine to twelve years of its current earnings. Infratil points to CDC's contracted earnings and its investment grade credit rating as what supports that funding [R1]. Part 3 compares the operators' balance sheets in full.
7.00 — HOW LONG THE CONTRACTS RUN
Leases of 13 to 27 years at the largest operators
Long customer contracts are usually what lets a lender fund a building that takes years to fill. CDC's weighted average lease term was 26.9 years at 31 March 2026, including options, which are the customers' rights to extend [R2]. Goodman Group (ASX: GMG) reports a weighted average lease term of 13.3 years on the data centres it has delivered and still owns or controls with its partnerships. Those sites are in Asia, Europe and Australia [R8]. Not every operator's leases are that long. DigiCo's Australian leases averaged about 3 years before its SYD1 contract and more than 10 years after it [R13].
NEXTDC's annual report shows A$11.87 billion of undiscounted lease payments due to it on three of its sites, M3, S4 and M5 [R4] [R3]. Some of the M3 contracts are affected by the delay to grid power in Melbourne. NEXTDC says they carry service level credits and, in some circumstances, termination rights [R12].
Large customers on long contracts also concentrate the risk. NEXTDC's largest customer provided 33 per cent of its revenue in the 2026 financial year [R4]. Part 3 sets out each operator's customers and contract terms side by side. Samso's September Insight on ASX data centre stocks looked at what the share market pays for these contracts [R11].
8.00 — THE A$1 BILLION, WORKED THROUGH
A theoretical model on the operators' figures
This section is a theoretical model that Samso built from the figures in sections 1.00 to 7.00. It is not a forecast for any company.
The model takes the A$1 billion building from section 1.00, about 67 MW of IT load, before land. It applies the range of A$1.8 million to A$2.3 million of EBITDA for each contracted and billing megawatt from section 4.00. It then asks what the building earns as it fills. TABLE 02 sets out the sums.
![TABLE 02 — The A$1 billion building earns less than its interest bill until it is about a quarter full. Columns: Share of 67 MW contracted and billing, Megawatts billing, EBITDA a year at A$1.8m to A$2.3m per MW, Yield on A$1 billion. Row 1. Share of 67 MW contracted and billing: 25 per cent; Megawatts billing: About 17 MW; EBITDA a year at A$1.8m to A$2.3m per MW: A$30m to A$39m; Yield on A$1 billion: 3.0% to 3.9%. Row 2. Share of 67 MW contracted and billing: 50 per cent; Megawatts billing: About 34 MW; EBITDA a year at A$1.8m to A$2.3m per MW: A$60m to A$77m; Yield on A$1 billion: 6.0% to 7.7%. Row 3. Share of 67 MW contracted and billing: 75 per cent; Megawatts billing: About 50 MW; EBITDA a year at A$1.8m to A$2.3m per MW: A$90m to A$116m; Yield on A$1 billion: 9.0% to 11.6%. Row 4. Share of 67 MW contracted and billing: 100 per cent; Megawatts billing: 67 MW; EBITDA a year at A$1.8m to A$2.3m per MW: A$121m to A$154m; Yield on A$1 billion: 12.1% to 15.4%. Row 5. Share of 67 MW contracted and billing: Interest on A$500m of debt at 6%; Megawatts billing: blank; EBITDA a year at A$1.8m to A$2.3m per MW: A$30m; Yield on A$1 billion: 3.0%. Source: Samso theoretical model, not a forecast. Build cost A$1 billion, 67 MW of IT load at about A$15 million a megawatt [R1], before land. EBITDA per contracted megawatt from TABLE 01. Land for 67 MW at Macquarie Technology's price per planned megawatt [R6] would add about A$80 million to A$85 million, lowering the yield when full by about one percentage point. Debt is assumed at half the build cost. Tax, depreciation and equipment replacement are not included.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/8d6c37_bed131c80c1a443984c505873fb16dc8~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_738,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/8d6c37_bed131c80c1a443984c505873fb16dc8~mv2.jpg)
Full and billing, the building earns about A$121 million to A$154 million of EBITDA a year. That is a yield on cost of about 12 to 15 per cent before land, or about 11 to 14 per cent with land added at Macquarie Technology's price. That is above NEXTDC's target of more than 10 per cent and Goodman's forecast yield on cost of 8.2 per cent across all its development work [R3] [R8]. One reason is the mix. The EBITDA per megawatt figures are averages across whole platforms, and they include smaller customers who pay more per megawatt. A new building let to one hyperscale customer would likely be nearer the bottom of the range.
Half full, the yield falls to about 6 to 8 per cent. A quarter full, it is about 3 to 4 per cent. FIG. 05 draws the same line. If half the A$1 billion were borrowed at 6 per cent, the interest would be about A$30 million a year. That is about what a quarter-full building earns in this model. These are Samso's sums.
The model overstates what a part-empty building earns, because it assumes the earnings per megawatt hold at any level of fill. In practice the staff, security, maintenance and cooling plant usually cost money from the first day. NEXTDC's Victorian margin rising from 48 per cent in 2014 to 83 per cent in 2018 shows that effect [R3].
9.00 — WHAT SAMSO READS FROM THE NUMBERS
Yields of about 12 to 15 per cent once full, and years of filling before that
This section is Samso's reading of the figures above.
A full data centre in Australia earns a good return on its build cost. The operators' figures put a contracted megawatt at around A$2 million of EBITDA a year against a build cost of about A$13 million to A$18 million. That is a yield of about 12 to 15 per cent before land, or about 11 to 14 per cent with land. The largest operators back it with contracts that often run for more than a decade.
What lowers the return is the time a building takes to fill. In the model in section 8.00, a building earns less than its interest bill until it is about a quarter full. NEXTDC's Victorian margin took about four years to rise from 48 per cent to above 80 per cent. In 2026 those sites earned about 3.8 per cent on everything spent on them, and part of that spending is for M3 capacity that is not yet billing.
A building that opens with signed customers climbs the line in FIG. 05 faster. Signed is not the same as billing. CDC expects its contracts to reach billing in steps over several years [R1]. NEXTDC's contracted customer at M3 now waits until NEXTDC's 2028 financial year for more grid power [R12]. A building that opens hoping to sign customers starts at the bottom.
NEXTDC's view, in the title of its slide, is that the lower rate per megawatt comes with longer contracts and higher returns. Longer contracts suit a lender and a long-term owner. In Samso's reading, the lower rate also means the earnings per megawatt of the future may be nearer the bottom of the range in TABLE 01 than the top.
THE STANDING COUNTERARGUMENT The cost and earnings figures in this part come from the operators. Two of the four EBITDA per megawatt figures are management estimates of what contracted capacity will earn once it is built. No operator publishes a full profit and loss for a single new building. NEXTDC's Victorian case study is the closest, and it covers three buildings together. So the build cost, the land, the grid connection and the cost of replacing equipment are not tested here. The return also depends on the price of a megawatt holding up. NEXTDC's revenue per megawatt fell from A$4.9 million to A$3.9 million in two years. A signed contract can also wait for power, as NEXTDC's M3 customer now does. The spending plans are large. NEXTDC and CDC alone guide to about A$8.3 billion to A$9.2 billion of spending in their current financial years, on Samso's sum of their guidance. If demand from the large cloud and AI customers slows, new halls would fill more slowly and an owner would spend longer at the low end of FIG. 05. Samso's Insight on the AI bubble looks at that spending. |
SAMSO TAKE The economics of a data centre come down to two numbers. One is what a megawatt earns once it is contracted and billing, which the operators put at around A$2 million of EBITDA a year. The other is how long the megawatts take to be contracted and powered. The operators publish their expected timing, and section 5.00 shows how that timing can slip. In the model in section 8.00, a full building earns an EBITDA yield of about 12 to 15 per cent on its cost before land. A building less than a quarter full earns less than its interest bill. NEXTDC's M3 delay shows that signed capacity can still wait for the power it needs to bill. Part 3 compares how the listed operators manage that balance. Part 4 applies the same test to the smaller ASX companies trying to enter the business. For any new data centre, how much of it is already signed, powered and billing, and on what terms? |
THE VOCABULARY, IN PLAIN ENGLISH MW of IT load The electrical power a data centre's servers can draw, in megawatts. It is the usual measure of a data centre's size and the unit operators price by. Billed, contracted and built megawatts Built megawatts are capacity that exists. Contracted megawatts are signed by customers. Billed or invoiced megawatts are being paid for now. Each operator defines them slightly differently. Hyperscale customer One of the very large cloud and AI companies that take whole data halls on long contracts. Power passthrough Electricity the operator buys and recharges to customers whose power use is metered separately. Other customers pay for power inside an all-in price. NEM The National Electricity Market, the shared grid and wholesale market of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Rack A standard cabinet that holds servers. EBITDA and EBITDAF Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. EBITDAF is Infratil's version. It also leaves out derivative movements, revaluations, impairments, gains or losses on selling investments and some one-off costs. Net revenue At NEXTDC, total revenue less direct costs, which are mostly the power customers use. Yield on cost A building's yearly earnings divided by what it cost to build. NEXTDC defines it as facility EBITDA divided by original cost. Facility EBITDA The earnings of a site before the operator's head office costs. PUE Power usage effectiveness, a site's total power use divided by the power its servers use. Lower is better. Rack utilisation CDC's measure of how much of its capacity is in use. Infratil says it includes white space, the floor area built for IT equipment, and space reserved for customers. Letter of intent A written statement that two parties intend to sign a contract. It is usually not binding. Subordinated notes Debt that is repaid after the banks if a company fails, so it carries a higher interest rate. Weighted average lease term The average time left on a company's leases, weighted by the income each brings in. Undiscounted lease payments The total of future rent due under signed leases, added up without adjusting for the time value of money. Run-rate What a business would earn over a full year at its current level of activity. |
10.00 — REFERENCES AND SOURCES
Where every figure comes from
Each source carries an identifier, [R1] to [R16], which appears in the body text where the source is used. Figures labelled PLATE are photographs. Figures labelled FIG. are charts. FIG. 04 and FIG. 05 are original Samso illustrations of sourced data, FIG. 05 a theoretical model. FIG. 01 to FIG. 03 and PLATE 01 are reproduced from the public documents named in their captions. Figures marked as Samso arithmetic are Samso's sums on the sources shown and are not company or AEMO figures.
[R1] Infratil (ASX: IFT), results presentation for the year ended 31 March 2026, CDC slides, PDF pages 10 to 12, printed slides 9 to 11. infratil.com/investors/results/annual-results-for-the-year-ended-31-march-2026/presentation-of-results-march-2026/
[R2] Infratil, detailed financial information and operating metrics, March 2026, 26 May 2026, page 6. infratil.com/investors/results/annual-results-for-the-year-ended-31-march-2026/detailed-financial-information-operating-metrics-march-2026/
[R3] NEXTDC (ASX: NXT), FY26 Results Presentation, 27 August 2026, slides 8, 10, 14, 23, 26 and 36. www.nextdc.com/hubfs/Financial%20Reports/FY26/NEXTDC%20FY26%20Results%20Presentation.pdf
[R4] NEXTDC (ASX: NXT), FY26 Annual Report, lodged 27 August 2026, PDF pages 21, 51, 106, 117 and 127, printed pages 20, 50, 105, 116 and 126. investorpa.com/announcement-pdf/20260827/334432.pdf
[R5] DigiCo Infrastructure REIT (ASX: DGT), FY26 Results Presentation, 21 August 2026, PDF pages 10, 12, 14, 16 and 19, printed slides 9, 11, 13, 15 and 18. www.hmccapital.com.au/investment-strategies/digital-infrastructure/digico-infrastructure-reit/financial-reports-presentations/dgt-fy26-results-presentation/
[R6] Macquarie Technology Group (ASX: MAQ), FY26 Group Investor Presentation, 26 August 2026, slides 13, 16, 23 and 25. www.macquarietechnologygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/FY26-Group-Investor-Presentation.pdf
[R7] Macquarie Technology Group (ASX: MAQ), Annual Report 2026, pages 50, 67, 81 and 89. www.macquarietechnologygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/MTG-Annual-Report-2026.pdf
[R8] Goodman Group (ASX: GMG), FY26 results release and presentation, 20 August 2026, release page 2 and slide 12 (PDF page 18). links.sgx.com/FileOpen/GMG%20SGX%20%20Full%20Year%20Results%20%2020.08.2026%20part%202.ashx?App=Announcement&FileID=901788
[R9] AEMO, 2026 Electricity Statement of Opportunities (NEM), 25 August 2026, page 36. www.aemo.com.au/-/media/files/electricity/nem/planning_and_forecasting/nem_esoo/2026/2026-electricity-statement-of-opportunities.pdf
[R10] Samso Insights, Data Centres in Australia - Where to Build One and Why, The Business of Data Centres Part 1, October 2026, section 5.00.
[R11] Samso Insights, ASX Data Centre Stocks, What the Market Is Actually Paying, 6 September 2026. www.samso.com.au/post/asx-data-centre-stocks-what-the-market-is-paying
[R12] NEXTDC (ASX: NXT), M3 Melbourne Power Delay and Revised FY27 Guidance, 21 October 2026, pages 1 to 4. announcements.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20261021/pdf/075kx2sf3k54h5.pdf
[R13] DigiCo Infrastructure REIT (ASX: DGT), DGT Executes Long-term 71MW Contract at SYD1, 15 October 2026, pages 1 and 2. announcements.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20261015/pdf/075bljmfn9vpm3.pdf
[R14] Infratil (ASX: IFT), Infratil Investor Day 2026, Data centre demand drives growth and guidance increase, 16 September 2026, page 1. announcements.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20260916/pdf/074490wlf78g7n.pdf
[R15] NEXTDC (ASX: NXT), Successful pricing of A$1.1 billion Convertible Notes, 10 September 2026, pages 1 and 2. announcements.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20260910/pdf/073y1w4rflr2ry.pdf
[R16] Infratil (ASX: IFT), Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2026, PDF page 52, printed page 50. infratil.com/investors/results/annual-results-for-the-year-ended-31-march-2026/infratil-fy2026-annual-report/
Cover photo. A data hall at DigiCo Infrastructure REIT's SYD1, Sydney, also shown in PLATE 01. DigiCo Infrastructure REIT, FY26 Results Presentation, 21 August 2026, PDF page 10 [R5].
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