China has inaugurated the world’s inaugural submarine data center, fully operational commercially and powered by offshore wind farms. This facility, valued at $226 million, resides near the Shanghai coast. The undertaking, officially commenced in June 2025 and finished that October, transitioned to full commercial operation last week, following successful preliminary trials conducted in February.
Situated approximately 35 meters beneath the surface, the 24 MW data center houses close to 2,000 servers, featuring GPU units dedicated to artificial intelligence tasks, 5G infrastructure, and big data processing. Its defining characteristic is the cooling mechanism: instead of conventional setups, it employs seawater for natural heat dissipation.
The endeavor is linked with offshore wind power stations, thereby utilizing partially renewable energy sources and lessening the demands placed on the main power grid.
Nevertheless, this technology presents certain hurdles: the machinery must withstand immense pressure and corrosive marine environments, and servicing or replacing underwater components is considerably more complex. Consequently, the system utilizes completely sealed modules and relies on remote management with extensive fail-safes built in.
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