Australia has just switched on its most powerful sovereign AI supercomputer, a system designed to give local businesses and government the kind of on-demand artificial intelligence capabilities normally reserved for global tech giants.
Launched in Melbourne by Australian-owned company ResetData, the new AI-F1 machine is built on NVIDIA’s latest H200 GPUs. The company claims it can perform twice as many AI-specific calculations as the nation’s existing public supercomputing infrastructure, surpassing systems such as Gadi and Setonix.
A step change for Australian AI
ResetData says the AI-F1 provides unprecedented access to artificial intelligence, machine learning and large language model workloads, while ensuring sensitive data can remain onshore. The project created 12 new full-time jobs and involved more than 350 people to bring it to life.
“This isn’t just a supercomputer, it’s Australia’s AI future,” said Bass Salah, joint CEO of ResetData. “Our AI-F1 factory puts cutting-edge AI capabilities directly into the hands of government and business, ensuring they can compete globally while keeping their data protected and onshore.”
Focus on sustainability
The supercomputer uses liquid immersion cooling, a system that promises up to 45 per cent lower emissions and cuts operational costs by around 40 per cent compared to legacy data centres. It operates with zero wastewater, addressing the industry’s growing environmental footprint.
Australia’s data centres already consume more than 47 billion litres of freshwater annually. That is the equivalent of nearly 19,000 Olympic swimming pools, and they use more energy than the state of South Australia. With AI workloads typically 10 times more resource-intensive than cloud computing, ResetData argues more sustainable approaches are critical.
A national AI competition
To mark the launch, ResetData is also running a national competition with up to $1 million in prizes, aimed at finding AI solutions to pressing issues across health, housing, technology and sustainability.
A judging panel will include NVIDIA’s ANZ country manager Sudarshan Ramachandran, CommBank’s CIO of Technology Brendan Hopper, futurist Dr Catherine Bell, and comedian and tech commentator Adam Spencer, alongside ResetData’s founders.
Spencer said entrants should “think big” and consider possibilities such as building a homegrown large language model or finding new ways to improve health and housing.
Applications are open until 30 September 2025, with winners announced at SXSW Sydney in mid-October.
Why it matters
Until now, advanced AI computing in Australia has been limited to private GPU clusters, creating barriers for many organisations. ResetData’s partnership with NVIDIA brings high-end infrastructure under Australian ownership, with businesses able to access pre-built and certified AI solutions through a dedicated marketplace.
Early clients include the University of New South Wales, the University of Adelaide, and the Australian Institute of Machine Learning.
By combining raw computing power with a sustainability-focused design, AI-F1 aims to position Australia not just as a user of global AI tools, but as a serious player in developing and deploying them locally.
