UPDATE 1 — SHAPE Australia wins $558 million DigiCo data centre expansion contract

(Adds details and background from paragraph 2 onwards) Oct 15 (Reuters) — Construction company SHAPE Australia said on Thursday it has been awarded a nearly A$800 million ($557.60 million) contract by ASX-listed DigiCo Infrastructure REIT to expand a data centre campus in Sydney. The contract covers a 52-megawatt expansion of the SYD1 facility, bringing the campus' total capacity to 88 MW when combined with its existing capacity and a recently completed 20-MW upgrade delivered by SHAPE. Demand for data centre capacity has surged globally as companies ramp up investments in AI infrastructure, driving a wave of expansion projects across Australia and other major markets. SHAPE has been appointed head contractor under a fixed-price design-and-construct contract and it said the work would begin immediately. The project involves the adaptive reuse of an existing data centre asset with approved grid capacity, water access and development approvals already in place, allowing new capacity to be added without a greenfield development. SHAPE, which provides refurbishment and design-and-build services to industries spanning government and defence to hotels and hospitality, said the data centr