Published: 02:44 GMT, 11 December 2024 | Updated: 02:52 GMT, 11 December 2024
An Aussie tech company has handed hundreds of workers a $65,000 bonus with the combined handouts worth a staggering $22million.
Sydney-based data processing firm AirTrunk awarded all of its 330 workers the cash boost ahead of a major deal with US asset management firm Blackstone this month.
The US company announced in September it had acquired AirTrunk for a whopping $24billion.
More than a hundred senior employees are also part of a profit sharing agreement with the company.
The $65,000 bonus is enough to afford a 10 per cent deposit on a home in some parts of Australia including Darwin where the median price for a house is $589,166.
AirTrunk, which specialises in running large data centres to protect the digital information of companies, is no stranger to delivering benefits to its workers.
Founder and CEO Robin Khuda paid the airfare for most of his employees for a trip to Bali earlier this year to attend a company conference held at the holiday destination.
Workers participated in several activities as part of the 'annual strategy meeting' including assembling push bikes for a local charity.
Data processing firm AirTrunk awarded all of its 330 workers the cash boost ahead of a major deal with Blackstone this month (pictured AirTrunk workers in Bali earlier this year)
Mr Khuda is among one of Australia's richest CEO's and is worth more than a billion dollars.
The company, which operates 11 data centres across Australia, Malaysia and Japan, boasts several high profile tech clients including Google, Microsoft and Amazon.
Mr Khuda, who founded AirTrunk in 2015, said he wants to grow the business into a $100billion company.
'We've always been ambitious. We're $24billion. We only have to grow four times, pretty much, to get to that level,' he told [The Australian](https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/airtrunk-pays-staff-bonuses-totalling-22m-after-blockbuster-deal-with-blackstone/news-story/b0fa99fa8b4963ced89f5090123278e9).
Mr Khuda said the company has forged strong ties with the big tech firms following significant investments in cloud computing infrastructure.
'We got the benefit of Covid, which accelerated the migration to the cloud,' he said.
'Now with AI there’s a significant amount of growth coming up, so we were at the right place and right time.'
The major tech companies are set invest a massive $1trillion over the next five years.
Mr Khuda said AirTrunk will support their ongoing efforts to integrate cloud computing services into their businesses.
The company attracted scrutiny in from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission over its sale in August, the [Australian Financial Review](https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/asic-puts-airtrunk-sale-on-private-markets-watchlist-20240821-p5k48u) reported.
The $20billion sale was announced by AirTrunk's previous owners Macquarie Asset Management and PSP Investments.
Mr Khuda was previously the chief executive of mobile payments company Mint Wireless, but left after just six months in the role.
He was also the founding executive at data centre operator NEXTDC and also worked at Optus and Fujitsu when he began his career.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted AirTrunk for further comment.