Silicon Valley bets $200M on AI data centers floating in the ocean

The newest node prototype, called Ocean-3, is scheduled for testing in the northern Pacific Ocean later in 2026. The latest version reaches about 85 meters in length and would stand nearly as tall as London’s Big Ben or New York City’s Flatiron Building, according to the Financial Times . Panthalassa has already tested several earlier prototypes of the wave energy converter technology, including the Ocean-1 in 2021 and the Ocean-2 that underwent a three-week sea trial off the coast of Washington state in February 2024. The company’s CEO and co-founder, Garth Sheldon-Coulson, said in a CBS interview that he hopes to eventually deploy thousands of the nodes. Challenges ahoy But there are plenty of challenges to overcome before Panthalassa can attempt to transform the world’s oceans into AI computing resources. Relying on satellite links to transmit data between the nodes and customers means dealing with limited bandwidth and signal delays—there is a reason why data centers still use fiber-optic cables to transmit large amounts of data quickly while reserving satellite links as backups. The limitations on satellite data transfers could also create complications if multiple nodes must coordinate to handle larger AI workloads. So it seems highly unlikely that such a scheme could replace traditional data centers, even if it might prove useful in some cases. …