SambaNova is proud to be partnering with SCX to build the first high-performance Australian sovereign inference cloud. The Australian market requires a sovereign AI solution that understands their unique economic environment, while maintaining security and data integrity. Powered by SambaNova, the SCX inference cloud will be able drive AI innovation and help make Australia a global AI leader.
Introduce yourself and Southern Cross AI. What’s your vision for the Australian market?
Southern Cross AI (SCX) is building Australia’s first high-performance inference cloud. We see a critical need for reliable, efficient AI capacity to power next-generation workloads and ensure every Australian benefits from the AI revolution. By enabling rapid, cost-effective access to this capacity, we’ll accelerate market growth. Crucially, we’re also launching Project Magpie—Australia’s first LLM fine-tuned for Australian culture and communication styles. Together, these initiatives will position Australia at the forefront of global AI adoption.
Beyond technical specs, why did SambaNova’s culture and vision make them the right partner?
SambaNova’s leadership team shares our conviction that AI infrastructure must prioritize performance and efficiency. We need to do things in new ways that are focused on performance, focused on efficiency, that enable operators like SCX to build an inference cloud in a way that makes economic sense. We know that the demand for the capacity that we can deliver is continuing to grow. But to be a successful business, we need to make sure that the infrastructure we build and the technology we deploy enables us to be successful financially. SambaNova’s unique technology delivers the financial sustainability we need to scale capacity across Australia.
Why is sovereign AI infrastructure critical for Australia?
Organizations recognize AI’s potential but hesitate due to data privacy concerns. Our sovereign cloud ensures data stays onshore under Australian governance, accelerating adoption. Australia is a market that has tremendous potential and every Australian can do amazing things. But we need to be able to power that with AI that's created appropriately, delivered securely, and understands the way Australians think and work is critical to the future of our country. Project Magpie exemplifies how AI must reflect Australian values and communication styles to drive meaningful adoption. Sovereignty isn’t optional — it’s foundational to Australia’s AI future.
Tell us more about Project Magpie and its suitability for Australia.
Global LLMs lack Australian cultural context. Rather than building from scratch, Project Magpie extracts the reasoning layer from open-source models, like gpt-oss, and fine-tunes it to “think Australian.” This preserves world-class AI capabilities while adapting to local nuances. Try it on our website — it demonstrates how nations can tailor AI without compromising quality.
Why are you excited about delivering open-source models via SambaNova?
Open source enables rapid innovation, and SambaNova’s infrastructure lets us deploy models (e.g., DeepSeek) with Australian sovereignty guarantees. Data never leaves our secure, onshore environment — giving organizations open-source flexibility without compromising compliance. This combination unlocks faster growth across the region.
What applications excite you most for the SCX platform?
Beyond early chatbots, we see massive potential in Agentic AI for automating complex workflows: data cleansing, decision support, workflow automation, and virtual assistants. As demand for generative processes surges, our platform provides the scalable, secure infrastructure Australian businesses need to deploy these next-gen solutions.
What’s next for SCX in the next few years?
We’ll expand inference capacity across Australia using existing data centers — minimizing build costs while maximizing proximity to users. We’re also exploring ASEAN opportunities, where explosive AI demand meets our high-performance, low-latency, sovereign offering.
How do you maximize energy efficiency in data centers?
Our “AI factory” model combines SambaNova’s efficient hardware with existing facilities — avoiding costly retrofits. This leverages prior investments in secure data centers while meeting Australia’s net-zero commitments. In Australia, people care about their power. They care about efficiency. They care about carbon use. Efficient compute is non-negotiable for sustainable scale.
What excites you about Australia’s developer ecosystem?
We’re launching developer programs this year, providing access to our infrastructure and education sessions. Empowering local developers to build AI-driven productivity tools is key to Australia’s economic future — and we’re committed to supporting their success.
Final thoughts on SCX’s mission?
We’re building Australia’s leading inference cloud to bring world-class AI to every corner of the nation. We invite partners, developers, and businesses to collaborate with us — share your use cases, and let’s shape Australia’s AI future together.
Conclusion
SambaNova and SCX are deploying Australia’s first sovereign AI inference cloud — powered by SambaNova’s ultra-efficient Reconfigurable Dataflow Units (RDUs) — to deliver high-performance inference with an average of just 10 kW per rack. This partnership enables SCX to bring sovereign AI to Australia and to serve the broader ASEAN market. Delivering extreme inference performance, along with the ability to scale seamlessly, the SambaNova platform enables SCX to use open-source models, trained on the Australian culture, with the absolute data protection and sovereignty.
SambaNova + SCX = Sovereign, Scalable, Secure AI
Learn more at sambanova.ai/solutions/southerncrossai