In an exchange filing to the Australian Securities Exchange, NextDC cut its revenue forecast to between 475 million and 500 million Australian dollars ($333 million to $350 million), down from a previous range of 615 million to 640 million Australian dollars. It also lowered its forecast for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to between 245 million and 265 million Australian dollars ($172 million to $186 million).
The company blamed setbacks at its M3 Melbourne data centre. Jemena, the electricity provider supplying power to the facility, suspended part of its improvement works last month and does not expect to restart them before February 2027.
"Jemena has suspended parts of the network works required for the next increase in grid supply to M3 Melbourne," NextDC chief executive Craig Scroggie said in the filing. "Jemena has attributed the suspension to community and stakeholder opposition to the works and to the absence of local council consent pending further consultation."
Australian data centres, like their US counterparts, are drawing protests from local communities worried about the impact on power and water supplies and worsening noise pollution.
NextDC's plunge caps a rough period for data centre and AI infrastructure companies. On Oct 9, Australian operator Firmus abruptly cancelled its local IPO, which was set to be one of the country's largest debuts, opting instead to raise funds through private markets amid investor concerns about debt and a lack of construction track record. Blackstone-owned AirTrunk postponed a Singapore listing for its real estate investment trust on Oct 13, according to media reports.
Last week, bonds from US-based neocloud CoreWeave plunged below 80 cents on the dollar, a level typically signalling financial strain. Elon Musk responded with a "yikes" post on X. On Oct 20, shares of South Korean cloud provider Elice Group plunged 32% on their first day of trading, before recovering 30% on Wednesday. Bloomberg reported that Singapore-based DayOne Data Centers is considering delaying or cutting the size of its upcoming US IPO.