China says 'world's first' offshore wind-powered underwater data center has entered full operation, houses 2,000 servers — 24 megawatt subsea AI facility uses ocean water for passive cooling and offshore wind for power

China's "world's first" offshore wind-powered underwater data center, located off the coast of Shanghai, has commenced full operations. This $226 million facility, managed in partnership with HiCloud Technology and state-backed telecom providers, houses 2,000 servers and utilizes ocean water for passive cooling and offshore wind for power. The data center is designed to process AI, big data annotation, and 5G infrastructure workloads, boasting an energy-efficient Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) below 1.15. This project aligns with China's efforts to integrate renewable energy into digital infrastructure and addresses the growing electricity consumption demands of AI expansion. Despite the benefits, underwater data centers pose engineering challenges related to maintenance and reliability.