A Singapore-based firm, Datagrid, has received approval to build New Zealand's first AI datacentre — a NZ$3.5bn (US$2bn) facility on a 49-hectare site in Makarewa, a rural community just north of Invercargill in the country's far south — with construction set to begin this year and operations expected by 2028. Residents and advocacy groups are raising alarms over the project's scale, including its planned daily draw of up to 604,800 litres of groundwater, discharge approvals for 84 diesel backup generators, and the removal of a nearby wetland, while complaining they were largely excluded from consultations. Critics, including an academic researcher who studies datacentre development, warn that the promised economic benefits — roughly 50 permanent jobs upon completion — are far outweighed by long-term environmental costs and a lack of transparency from both the company and New Zealand's government agency Invest New Zealand, which is seeking up to NZ$30bn in foreign investment to make the country an AI infrastructure hub.