The AI boom has arrived and Neoclouds are leading the charge.
AI is no longer a future trend. It’s here, it’s growing fast, and it’s transforming how organisations operate, compete, and scale.
In our last blog, we explained what Neoclouds are specialised cloud providers built for AI and high-performance computing (HPC). They offer businesses fast, flexible access to powerful GPUs without the complexity of building infrastructure or waiting in line with the big cloud providers.
But knowing what a Neocloud is, isn’t the same as knowing why they matter right now.
To understand why Neoclouds are gaining traction so quickly, we need to explore what’s changed, what pressures organisations are facing, and how these specialised, AI-first platforms are stepping in to meet the moment.
In this article, we’ll unpack:
Timing Is Everything: Why 2024-25 Changed the Game
The Pressure Points: What’s Driving the Shift to Neoclouds?
Why This Matters for Organisational Leaders
How NEXTDC Supports the Neocloud Movement
Let’s take a closer look at what’s shifted in 2024 and 2025, and why Neoclouds are rapidly emerging as essential infrastructure partners for organisations building for AI at scale.
Timing Is Everything: Why 2024-25 Changed the Game
Until recently, most organisations were still experimenting with AI, running small pilots, testing models, and watching the landscape. But the past 12 months have marked a shift from experimentation to acceleration.
Across industries, AI-first workloads, things like generative chatbots, recommendation engines, fraud detection systems, and autonomous data analysis, are no longer niche. They’re front-line tools driving revenue, decision-making, and innovation.
This surge in demand for AI compute has exposed a big problem: infrastructure isn’t keeping up.
The Pressure Points: What’s Driving the Shift to Neoclouds?
1. Massive AI Compute Demand
AI models are getting bigger, faster, and more complex. Training a large model today can take thousands of GPU hours. And the larger the model, the more expensive and time-sensitive it is.
Many companies simply can’t get the capacity they need or can’t get it in time. Neoclouds offer instant access to high-performance GPUs at scale, unlocking speed-to-market.
2. Global GPU Shortages
In 2023 and 2024, demand for GPUs (especially NVIDIA’s H100 and A100 chips) exploded. Hyperscalers started hoarding supply, and smaller players were left scrambling1.
Neoclouds responded fast working with partners like NEXTDC to deploy racks of GPU servers in high-density, AI-optimised environments. For many organisations, Neoclouds became the only fast, affordable path to GPU access.
3. Cloud Delays & Rising Costs
Hyperscaler contracts often come with long lead times, complex pricing, and variable performance under AI workloads.
Neoclouds offer simplified contracts, predictable pricing models, and performance tuned specifically for machine learning. Some customers report up to 66% savings compared to hyperscaler GPU rates2.
4. Sovereign Infrastructure & Data Residency
For organisations operating in regulated industries (like government, healthcare, or finance), where data needs to stay within national borders, sovereign cloud options matter more than ever.
Neocloud Operators host their compute inside NEXTDC’s Australian-based sovereign data centres, ensuring full control over where workloads run without compromising on performance or availability.
5. Sustainability & Power Efficiency
Running AI at scale takes serious energy. As pressure builds to cut digital carbon emissions, it’s becoming an even stronger focus for executive leadership.
Some Neoclouds, like Crusoe, are leading the way in low-emissions compute by using waste energy or renewable-backed facilities. With support from data centre partners like NEXTDC which operate energy-efficient infrastructure, AI teams can better align their deployments with ESG goals.
Why This Matters for Organisational Leaders
If you're leading an AI transformation or even just planning for one, the infrastructure decisions you make now will shape your speed, competitiveness, and cost model for years to come.
Neoclouds matter because they remove friction.
They give your teams:
- On-demand GPU power without supply chain delays
- Lower costs compared to traditional cloud AI pricing
- Sovereign control of where data and models live
- Scalability without needing to build your own data centre
- Faster time to market which is everything in the AI arms race
As the AI wave accelerates, organisations that can execute fast, train smarter, and deploy globally will win. And Neoclouds are making that possible.
How NEXTDC Supports the Neocloud Movement
Neoclouds don’t operate in isolation, they need a world-class infrastructure foundation. That’s where NEXTDC comes in.
NEXTDC powers Australia’s leading Neocloud Operators, delivering:
-
AI-ready colocation with ultra-high-density rack support — from 10kW to 150kW, and scalable to 600kW with custom configurations
-
Integrated liquid cooling options, including rear-door heat exchangers and direct-to-chip systems, with readiness for immersion cooling
-
NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Centre certification for GPU-optimised environments
-
Sovereign-certified facilities across key metro and regional locations
-
AXON interconnectivity to cloud, carrier, and edge ecosystems
-
Energy-efficient operations and audited ESG reporting to support sustainability goals
-
Speed-to-rack deployment to reduce time-to-market for new platforms
Whether you're building a GPU cloud, scaling AI services, or launching in Australia, NEXTDC helps you move from idea to infrastructure, with speed, trust, and flexibility.
Final Thoughts
Neoclouds aren’t just the future they’re the present-day enabler of high-performance AI.
They’ve emerged at the exact moment when businesses need better performance, lower latency, and more control over where and how they run critical AI services.
So if you're serious about AI, it's time to ask:
“Are we using the right cloud — or just the biggest one?”
Ready to Scale AI?
NEXTDC partners with Neocloud operators and GPU-as-a-Service providers to deliver the high-performance, AI-optimised infrastructure required for today’s most demanding workloads. From sovereign compliance to ultra-dense, liquid-cooled GPU racks, we make scaling AI secure, efficient, and future-ready.
Let’s build what’s next — together.
