Who needs data centers in space when they can float offshore?

The power crunch in AI data centers has become so severe that people — not just Elon Musk — are talking about launching servers into space so they can access solar power 24/7.

One startup believes the ocean is a better place for it. Offshore wind developer Aikido plans to submerge a 100-kilowatt pilot data center off the coast of Norway this year. The small unit will live in the submerged pods of floating offshore wind turbines.

If all goes well, the company hopes to build a larger version for deployment off the coast of the UK in 2028. This model will contain 15 MW to 18 MW turbines that will feed a 10 MW to 12 MW data centre.

Moving abroad can solve some challenges. Proximity to authority is obvious, as the source will be at the top. Offshore wind is more consistent than onshore wind, and a modest battery can fill in any lulls.

Flooded data centers could eliminate the concerns of NIMBY — “not in my backyard” groups — who oppose data centers near their property over concerns about noise and pollution.

Finally, by floating in cold seawater, cooling the servers will be simpler. (Cooling is a particularly vexing issue for orbiting data centers, because they need to use different technologies in the vacuum of space.)

But for all the challenges that offshore data centers solve, they present a few more. The ocean is a harsh environment. Although submerged servers will not be hit by waves, they will also not be completely stable, so they must be fully supported. Seawater is also a corrosive substance, so any equipment, including the container and power and data connections, will need to be reinforced against it.

Aikido is not the first company to suggest submerging data centers in seawater. Microsoft first floated the idea more than a decade ago, and in 2018 it launched a trial off the coast of Scotland, which was modestly successful. Only six servers failed out of more than 850 in the 25-month trial. (The data hall was filled with inert nitrogen gas, which may help explain the low server failure rates.)

Microsoft has been awarded a number of patents over the years, which it opened sourced in 2021. But by 2024, the company had delved deeper into the project.