China has inaugurated the world’s first commercial underwater data center, situated off the coast of Lingshui County, Hainan province. The facility is part of Hainan’s push to build its “blue economy” and attract foreign investment to its free-trade zone, says this South China Morning Post article.
The data center is housed in a 1,300-tonne steel cabin placed about 35 meters below the ocean surface. It contains 24 server racks, capable of supporting 400–500 servers. By using seawater as a coolant, the underwater design reduces the energy needed for cooling compared with most land-based centers.
The facility is framed in policy as a part of Hainan’s 14th Five-Year Plan. The broader goal: deploy a subsea data center system composed of up to 100 such cabins. Digital services, from travel apps to restaurant guides, are expected to be processed in these underwater setups.
That said, the center raises several practical issues. Saltwater poses corrosion risks, necessitating robust structural protection and ongoing maintenance. Access and servicing underwater remain more complicated than in conventional data centers. Also, while cooling energy demands drop sharply, the environmental effects of local heating, ecosystem disruption, and marine thermal pollution are not fully known or quantified.
Underwater data-center experiments are not new, but previous efforts (e.g., by Microsoft) were mostly experimental or not fully commercialized. China’s deployment marks a shift: these facilities are now intended for widespread, operational service.
Overall, this initiative could help reduce data-center power costs and carbon footprints significantly. But scaling it safely and sustainably will require solving engineering challenges, environmental monitoring, and clear rules around how much heat or disturbance marine ecosystems can absorb.