Former Victorian minister Danny Pearson spent his final months on the frontbench locked in a flurry of talks with global artificial intelligence and data centre giants, including hosting international executives at the Australian Open.
The charm offensive – including one critical meeting also attended by Premier Jacinta Allan – reveals the state government’s increasingly frantic pitch to attract multibillion-dollar data infrastructure to Victoria, amid its growing reliance on global technology giants to sustain state economic growth.
Premier Jacinta Allan with NextDC chief executive Craig Scroggie in one of the company’s Melbourne data centres last year. Justin McManus Recently released ministerial diaries reveal that Pearson, the former minister for economic growth and jobs, held 12 meetings with data centre and artificial technology firms in the first three months of this year alone – marking a massive escalation in the state’s engagement with the sector.
During the same three-month period in 2025, Pearson met industry stakeholders just twice.
The ministerial diaries show that technology negotiations over the summer months included private briefings with global executives from Nvidia, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and US technology heavyweight Anthropic, alongside local firm Sovereign Australia AI.
The blitz included a closed-door industry dinner on March 23, host
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