Why is China putting AI data centers under the sea?

China is taking an unconventional approach to building greener AI infrastructure: putting data centers under the sea.

Off the coast of Shanghai's Lingang Special Area, a newly operational offshore platform now hosts the world's first commercial underwater data center powered directly by offshore wind energy. The project, with a total planned investment of 1.6 billion yuan (about $235 million), is designed to tackle one of the tech industry's fastest-growing challenges – the soaring electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence (AI).

Global data center power consumption is expected to more than double by 2030, with AI becoming the main driver of that growth, according to the International Energy Agency.

The underwater facility sits about 10 meters below the sea surface and contains 192 server racks across four levels. Its pilot phase currently operates at 2.3 megawatts, while the full project is expected to reach 24 mw.

Unlike traditional land-based data centers, which can use up to 40% of their electricity for cooling, the underwater site relies on naturally cold seawater. Average sea temperatures in the area hover around 15 degrees Celsius, significantly reducing the energy needed for cooling systems.

The data center is linked directly to a nearby 200-mw offshore wind farm with more than 50 turbines. Through photoelectric composite cable, over 95% of the facility's electricity comes from renewable energy.

The fully scaled facility could save 61 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually while sharply cutting carbon emissions. It also dramatically reduces land use, requiring only a fraction of the space needed for comparable land-based facilities.

Building underwater in challenging conditions – including strong waves and heavy sediment – required engineers to develop new integrated offshore construction and precision installation technologies. The entire project was completed in just six months.

Following the successful commercialization of the integration of offshore wind power and submarine computing power in Shanghai, developers decided to expand underwater data center deployments in the future.