Cisco and SharonAI Launch Australia's First Secure AI Factory
Cisco (CSCO) and SharonAI (SHAZ) and its subsidiaries, announced the launch of Australia's first Cisco Secure AI Factory in partnership with Nvidia (NVDA). The companies said, "This initiative marks a significant leap forward in providing Australia with secure, scalable and high-performance sovereign AI capabilities with all data and AI processing kept within the country. By delivering robust national digital infrastructure and upholding data sovereignty, the Cisco Secure AI Factory powers an AI-enabled economy, supporting the development, adoption, and responsible use of AI in alignment with Australia's new National AI Plan. Sharon AI will offer a variety of solutions tailored to different customer needs and industries. Customers will also have access to a sandbox environment to experiment with proof-of-concepts. At the foundation of these offers is the Cisco Secure AI Factory with Nvidia, powered by: Cisco's UCS servers, together with Cisco security and networking portfolio delivering accelerated AI capabilities, and Nexus Hyperfabric as part of the Nexus One unified management plane. 1024 Nvidia Blackwell Ultra GPUs, delivering breakthrough performance and flexibility for complex AI and machine learning tasks. Vast Data's cutting-edge storage systems provide the fast, reliable, and scalable data access to support demanding AI workloads. NEXTDC's world-class Australian data centers provide resilient, sovereign hosting for all critical infrastructure.
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- Support for National AI Plan: This factory not only provides enterprises with high-performance AI infrastructure but also aligns with Australia's National AI Plan, accelerating AI adoption and innovation across the Asia-Pacific region, thus strengthening the country's competitive position in the global AI market.
- Diverse Solutions Offered: Sharon AI will offer a variety of solutions tailored to different industries, along with a sandbox environment for customers to experiment with proof-of-concepts, further promoting enterprise exploration and application in the AI domain.
- Future Collaboration Outlook: The partnership between Cisco and Sharon AI extends beyond the current initiative, with plans to expand AI infrastructure in 2026 and beyond, driving enterprise AI adoption in the Asia-Pacific region and reinforcing Australia's leadership in the global AI ecosystem.










