One of the biggest challenges of artificial intelligence is the amount of energy it consumes. And much of it is directly related to the cooling of the data centers where all the information is processed. In fact, Data centers consume more than 2% of the planet’s electricity. And that figure would double in 2030 thanks to the use of AI.
In this way, look for alternatives to Refrigeration has become something priority For large data centers. This is how the idea of underwater data centers was born, precisely what China has done.
Basically, it has submerged on the coast of Hainan a data center capsule whose processing power will be used in AI training, videogame production and marine research. To dimension the power of this module, the Official media speak of a sufficient processing to manage 7,000 conversations with Depseek per second.
This new capsule increases processing power of the cluster submerged to the equivalent of 30,000 high -end games computers operating simultaneously.
The 18 -meter boat was thrown into the sea in Lingshui, in the province of Hainan, to the south of China and will connect to the underwater data center installed in December 2023. The depth it is located, About 40 meters, it would naturally refrigerate the entire module.
It is believed that the Hacloud Data Center is The world’s first commercial submarine center in the world, although several companies have experienced with the installation of servers under the sea.
In particular, Microsoft built an underwater data center, The Natick project, which immersed itself on the coast of Scotland in 2018. Although it was said that the 855 servers housed in the data center worked correctly, Microsoft confirmed that the project had been abandoned.
Two startups, Subsea Cloud and Networkocean, plan to install underwater data centers, although it is believed that the latter had problems with permits when trying to establish a test in the San Francisco Bay.