China has brought what it calls the world’s first offshore wind-powered underwater data center into full commercial operation off the coast of Shanghai. The $226 million project, launched in 2025, was developed through a partnership involving government agencies, HiCloud Technology, and China Telecom. Located about 35 meters beneath the sea surface, the 24MW facility houses nearly 2,000 servers dedicated to AI, big data, and 5G workloads.
Instead of relying on energy-hungry cooling systems, the subsea data center uses the surrounding ocean as a natural heat sink. The stable seawater temperatures continuously absorb heat from the sealed server modules, dramatically reducing cooling requirements. Chinese reports claim the facility achieves a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) below 1.15, significantly better than the industry average of around 1.5.
The project also draws much of its power from nearby offshore wind farms, reflecting China’s efforts to combine renewable energy with expanding digital infrastructure. While underwater data centers offer advantages in cooling efficiency and sustainability, they also face challenges such as corrosion, pressure resistance, cable reliability, and difficult maintenance. The Shanghai facility follows earlier experiments like Microsoft’s Project Natick, highlighting growing global interest in ocean-cooled data centers as AI computing demands continue to rise.
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