As data centers acquire a reputation that’s dipped below the surface in the public eye, the very idea of placing them underwater could gain traction in a tangible way.
Disliking data centers may be understandable to some, yet the attitude is widespread, particularly in the United States. Lawmakers have been leveraging this sentiment to push through heavy-handed rules, hoping to win populist points. Faced with that environment, what path might a company in artificial intelligence take?
Perhaps it’s time to consider seasteading, at least as a possibility.
“A number of developers are examining the ocean as a fresh site for AI infrastructure, banking on underwater data centers to cut energy usage and cooling demands, while also consuming less fresh water and land than conventional onshore facilities,” notes Nir Kshetri, a management professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro who researches the societal and environmental implications of emerging technologies. He describes underwater data centers as “a promising new approach for supporting AI growth.”
You are reading Sex & Tech, from Elizabeth Nolan Brown. Get more of Elizabeth’s sex, tech, bodily autonomy, law, and online culture coverage.
Underwater data centers would not technically qualify as “seasteaders”—autonomous entities positioned far enough offshore to escape any government’s jurisdiction.
Even if underwater data centers could be placed far from land enough to escape national waters — not entirely impossible, but impractical, expensive, and logistically daunting — they would still be bound by various rules of international waters and would still depend on cables linking them to shore. They would also be run by tech firms rooted in a nation’s borders and subject to that nation’s oversight and laws.
Thus, while submersion might address certain energy and land-use concerns, it would not automatically erase the principal obstacles to data-center building: political hostility and excessive regulation.
Microsoft has already demonstrated that underwater centers are feasible and could outperform terrestrial ones. As Kshetri explains:
In 2015, Microsoft launched a study to assess the viability, benefits, and hurdles of underwater data centers. Part of that work included deploying a waterproof data center on the sea floor near Scotland’s Orkney Islands in 2018. It housed 864 servers and connected to shore via an underwater cable.
After two years, Microsoft reported that the underwater center’s servers failed at about one-eighth the rate of those in comparable land-based facilities. The firm is still investigating the causes but theorizes that a sealed underwater setting reduces exposure to oxygen, humidity, and temperature swings—also minimizing disturbances from workers replacing components.
Microsoft concluded that underwater data centers are dependable, practical, and energy-efficient. Yet it terminated the experiment in 2024 and has not launched another underwater data center since.
“The company hasn’t explained the reason,” notes Kshetri, “but analyses by others point to regulatory barriers, such as environmental permitting, alongside a push for quicker upgrades and replacements for the computer gear inside.”
It seems that human factors—more than technical hurdles—could be the main barrier impeding the expansion of coastal data centers.
If that proves true, we may forego a valuable, environmentally friendlier innovation that could advance technology while still respecting communities that prefer not to host data centers nearby.
A wind-powered underwater data center in China, launched last year, “consumes at least 30% less electricity than traditional data centers, and offshore wind turbines lessen reliance on fossil fuels, cutting the facility’s carbon footprint,” Kshetri notes.
Floating data centers being tested in Japan and South Korea could similarly reduce land consumption and resource-intensive operations.
Shifting data centers offshore indeed raises “new concerns about potential harm to marine ecosystems,” Kshetri writes. It remains unclear whether the ocean can become AI’s next computing frontier without becoming its next environmental issue. Still, with a thoughtful approach, underwater data centers could evolve into sustainable alternatives to conventional facilities.
There are significant investments backing this vision. For instance, Panthalassa, a U.S.-based startup backed by Peter Thiel, announced $140 million in funding in May to develop a fleet of floating data centers powered by ocean waves, according to Fortune.
And federal regulators might not stifle this kind of innovation before it takes off. In August, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted DeepGreen Western Passage SPV’s preliminary permit application for a $100 million underwater data center off Maine’s coast. The permit would enable engineering and environmental studies necessary to secure funding and launch the project; it does not authorize construction yet.
Yet opposition remains a major factor.
In Maine, DeepGreen’s application met swift resistance from residents and Passamaquoddy officials, who oppose the project and catalyzed two citizen petitions to block it, the Maine Monitor reports. Earlier this month, the city council voted unanimously to impose a 180-day moratorium to allow local officials to review and possibly revise zoning rules.
More on Sex & Tech
>try to warn conservatives about runaway AI
>think up a strategy
>’What’s something scary?’
>eureka!
>tell them agents are ‘algorithmic immigrants’ pic.twitter.com/5wsChzmERY— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) September 10, 2026
• Anthropic reports that it “disrupted” individuals in Yemen attempting to use Claude to develop guided weapons. “We have no evidence the actors succeeded in fielding an operational device; however, they did test-fire a guided rocket,” Anthropic notes. “This field test appears to have failed: within hours, the actors returned to Claude to figure out why it failed.” It also reportedly uncovered “three Iranian state-aligned accounts that were using Claude to set up influence operations campaigns,” including “planning and preparing content to support what they called a ‘soft war’ or ‘cognitive warfare’ program.”
“planning and prepping content to support what they called a ‘soft war’ or ‘cognitive warfare’ program.”
• A California woman was arrested after repeatedly driving by a multi-racial family and accusing the man of trafficking his daughter.
• The meme about the “government-mandated girlfriend” makes a comeback.
• Why is Apple reviving flip phones?
