PLENTY OF COOLING POTENTIAL: Should Data Centers Go Seasteading?

“Some developers are now exploring the ocean as a new location for AI infrastructure in the hopes that underwater data centers could improve energy use and cooling efficiency while using less fresh water and land area than onshore buildings,” writes University of North Carolina Greensboro management professor Nir Kshetri, who studies the social and environmental effects of emerging technology. He calls under-the-sea data centers “a promising new approach for supporting the growth of AI.”

Underwater data centers would be not technically be “seasteaders”—autonomous entities based far enough offshore that they’re not subject to the rules of any government.

Even if underwater data centers could be based physically far enough from shore that they’re not in anyone’s national waters—not necessarily impossible, but impractical, costly, and a logistical nightmare—they would still be subject to various rules of international waters and would still need cables connecting them to land. They would also be run by tech companies based within an existing country’s borders and subject to that country’s oversight and regulations.

Orbital data centers require no cables.