China Launches Commercial Offshore Wind-Powered Underwater AI Data Centre Near Shanghai
May 25, 2026
China Launches Commercial Offshore Wind-Powered Underwater AI Data Centre Near Shanghai
China has officially begun commercial operations at an underwater artificial intelligence data centre located off the coast of Shanghai, powered entirely by offshore wind and cooled by seawater. The facility, situated near the Lingang Special Area, represents a significant step in merging renewable energy infrastructure with high-density computing for AI workloads.
The subsea data centre houses nearly 2,000 servers inside pressure-resistant modules placed approximately 35 metres below the ocean surface. Developed through a partnership involving the Lingang Special Area Administrative Committee, Shanghai Lingang Special Area Investment Holding Group, and private engineering contractor HiCloud Technology, the project also includes operational agreements with China Telecom, Shenergy Group, and CCCC Third Harbor Engineering. Construction began in June 2025 after final agreements were signed, was completed by October 2025, and initial trials started in February 2026 before full commercial launch in May.
The facility is located between the first and second phases of the Lingang offshore wind farm and reportedly cost approximately ¥1.6 billion, or about US$226 million. It was built in stages, starting as a 2.3MW demonstration project before expanding into a 24MW commercial operation. The subsea modules contain GPU clusters and other computing equipment designed to support AI computing, cloud services, domestic large language model development, 5G infrastructure, big data processing, and large-scale data annotation.
Unlike conventional land-based data centres, the Lingang facility relies on a passive seawater cooling system. According to HiCloud Technology, heat from the servers changes refrigerant inside copper pipes from liquid to gas. The gas rises to an upper cooling layer, where heat is transferred to the surrounding seawater through a heat exchanger. After cooling, the refrigerant turns back into liquid and returns to the server modules through gravity. Chinese media reports said the facility achieved a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating below 1.15, compared with traditional enterprise data centres which often operate closer to 1.5. Developers said the design reduces electricity use by 22.8%, eliminates the need for freshwater, and cuts land requirements by more than 90%. More than 95% of the facility’s power comes from renewable sources, primarily the adjacent offshore wind infrastructure.
The underwater design also presents operational challenges, including protection against saltwater corrosion, pressure, water intrusion, and subsea cable faults. Equipment replacement requires underwater access procedures, and operators rely on modular systems, remote monitoring, and redundancy to minimise physical repairs. Power and fibre-optic connections require subsea cabling, and repairs typically demand specialised vessels and equipment.
The Shanghai project has drawn comparisons to Microsoft’s Project Natick, which tested underwater data centre modules off California in 2015 and near Scotland’s Orkney Islands in 2018. Microsoft’s trials found that sealed underwater environments could reduce hardware failure rates by limiting exposure to oxygen and human interference, but the company later discontinued the programme commercially. Unlike Microsoft’s trials, the Lingang project has entered commercial operation and is directly connected to offshore renewable energy infrastructure. While it is not the first underwater data centre overall—an earlier commercial project was launched near Hainan, China—the Shanghai facility is described as the first offshore wind-powered underwater AI data centre globally.
Source: techwireasia
