Silicon Valley bets big on wave-powered floating AI data centers | Latest Tech News
Silicon Valley’s AI growth could also be heading out to sea.
Tech buyers are pouring more than $200 million into a futuristic plan to construct floating AI data centers powered by ocean waves — a wild new method aimed at dodging the growing complications of building large server farms on land, according to Ars Technica.
Startup Panthalassa is behind the project, and is having fun with big backing from billionaire investor and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, who helped lead the company’s latest $140 million funding spherical to construct a pilot manufacturing facility close to Portland, Oregon.
The funds will speed up development of giant wave-powered “nodes” that float in the center of the ocean while working AI systems, according to the Financial Times.
Tech buyers are have spent over $200 million into a futuristic plan to construct floating AI data centers. Youtube/@panthalassa.vitality
Startup Panthalassa just lately raised another $140 million to help construct a pilot manufacturing facility close to Portland, Oregon. Youtube/@panthalassa.vitality
The floating nodes resemble monumental metal spheres bobbing in the ocean with a long vertical tube stretching beneath the floor. Youtube/@panthalassa.vitality
Instead of piping renewable vitality back to land, the company desires the floating buildings to generate electrical energy on-site and immediately energy AI chips onboard. The AI systems would then ship outcomes back to clients around the world through satellite tv for pc connections.
“Panthalassa’s idea transforms an energy transmission problem into a data transmission problem,” University of Pennsylvania pc architect Benjamin Lee told Ars Technica.
The floating nodes resemble monumental metal spheres bobbing in the ocean with a long vertical tube stretching beneath the floor. As waves transfer the construction, water is pushed upward into a pressurized chamber that can then release water through generators to generate electrical energy.
The surrounding ocean water would also naturally cool the AI chips — a doubtlessly large benefit as conventional AI data centers burn through big quantities of energy and water to keep cool.
The company has already examined earlier variations of the technology, including a prototype that accomplished a three-week sea trial off the coast of Washington state in 2024. Panthalassa
As waves transfer the construction, water is pushed upward into a pressurized chamber that can then release water through generators to generate electrical energy. Panthalassa
CEO and co-founder Garth Sheldon-Coulson beforehand told CBS he hopes to ultimately deploy 1000’s of the floating nodes. Youtube/@panthalassa.vitality
“Ocean-based compute might offer a massive cooling advantage because the ambient temperature is so low,” Lee told the outlet.
Panthalassa’s latest prototype, called Ocean-3, is anticipated to start testing in the northern Pacific later this 12 months, according to the report. Ars Technica stories the construction stretches roughly 85 meters long — practically as tall as London’s Big Ben or the Flatiron Building in New York City.
The company has already examined earlier variations of the technology, including a prototype that accomplished a three-week sea trial off the coast of Washington state in 2024.
CEO and co-founder Garth Sheldon-Coulson beforehand told CBS he hopes to ultimately deploy 1000’s of the floating nodes.
Maintenance might also change into a nightmare if thousand of autonomous AI-powered machines are scattered across the world’s oceans for years at a time. Panthalassa
Panthalassa desires the floating nodes to survive “more than a decade in the harshest ocean conditions” while working without human upkeep. Panthalassa
But the bold idea faces major hurdles.
Satellite web connections stay far slower and less dependable than fiber-optic cables used by conventional land-based data centers, which might create issues for AI systems that require fixed communication between servers.
“Frequent communication and coordination between nodes may be challenging,” Lee told Ars Technica.
Maintenance might also change into a nightmare if thousand of autonomous AI-powered machines are scattered across the world’s oceans for years at a time.
According to a current company jobs listings, Panthalassa desires the floating nodes to survive “more than a decade in the harshest ocean conditions” while working without human upkeep.
The futuristic project also sparked skepticism online after the Financial Times reported that the floating vessels might propel themselves through waves without engines.
Meanwhile others identified another benefit, including the Wall Street Journal’s deputy tech and media editor based in San Francisco Jeff Bercovici, who joked that the floating data centers could have by chance solved a a lot greater financial drawback — transport.
“If ocean travel doesn’t require propulsion anymore we’ve solved a bigger problem than data centers,” he wrote on X.
The idea of ocean-based data centers isn’t fully new.
Microsoft experimented with underwater data middle servers through its Project Natick initiative in 2015 and 2018 before finally shelving the concept.
Chinese corporations have also deployed underwater data centers close to Hainan Island and Shanghai, while Singapore-based Keppel has labored on floating data centers initiatives, according to the report.
Ars Technica famous that Panthalassa’s imaginative and prescient is among the most aggressive yet, and it comes as major tech gamers are anticipated to spend an eye-watering $765 billion on AI data centers in 2026 while going through rising resistance from local communities, labor shortages and energy provide constraints on land.
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