BUZZ-Citi bullish on Australia's NEXTDC driven by Microsoft's data centre plans

** Citi shows confidence in data centre operator NEXTDC NXT.AX despite industry concerns, driven by Microsoft's unrelenting data centre capex plans ** Brokerage maintains "buy" rating with a target price of A$20/share ** Despite concerns over potential contract delays, Citi remains positive about the data centre development in Australia, backed by Microsoft's planned $80 billion spend on AI-enabled data centres in FY25 ** Brokerage flags that the stock's performance could be impacted by trends in AI ** Citi expects a surge in demand for data centres due to increased capex by Big 4 cloud companies ** 15 analysts rate the stock as 'buy' or higher, including 3 rating it as 'strong buy'; their median PT is A$19.35 – LSEG data ** Shares of co last year gained 11% (Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) (([email protected];))