By Chris Keall
Publication Date: 2026-05-10 17:00:00
The Datagrid “AI factory” planned for Southland – first announced in 2020 and put at $5.1b in promotional material, still needs Transpower consent, funding, and a cable partner (after Chorus pulled out, citing a lack of anchor customers). As of this week, national grid operator Transpower remains in an “investigation phase”.
Spark’s huge “surf park” data centre – first announced in 2023 and consented the following year, remains on the drawing board.
The telco said it needed to raise more than $1b for data centre expansion. It secured the bulk of it by selling 75% of its data centre business to Australian firm Private Equity Partners, with a company called TenPeaks (25% owned by Spark, 75% by PEP) formed as a…