China has officially launched and operationalized the world’s first commercial underwater data center, marking a revolutionary advance in sustainable digital infrastructure. The facility, located in the sea off Lingshui in Hainan Province, uses the deep ocean to tackle the massive cooling and energy challenges facing the global tech industry.
The project, spearheaded by the company Shenzhen HiCloud Data Centre Technology (a unit of Beijing Highlander), features robust, sealed data cabins submerged approximately 35 meters beneath the sea surface. Each module can house hundreds of servers, with the initial installation weighing around 1,300 to 1,433 tons.
The primary innovation lies in harnessing the naturally cool and stable ocean environment. Unlike traditional, land-based data centers—where cooling systems can account for up to 40% of total energy consumption—the underwater facility uses seawater for cooling, which is expected to reduce energy use by up to 90% for thermal management.
Project managers emphasized that the new infrastructure is designed for high-performance computing (HPC) and is already serving clients in AI model training, industrial simulation, and general cloud services. Furthermore, the stable, oxygen-free environment is anticipated to significantly improve server reliability and longevity.
The deployment is a key component of Hainan’s strategic push to develop its “blue economy,” integrating marine technology with digital growth. The regional government has ambitious plans to deploy a network of 100 underwater data cabins in the coming years, which would collectively save millions of kilowatt-hours of electricity and thousands of tons of fresh water annually compared to an equivalent land-based operation.
While Microsoft successfully trialed the subsea concept with its Project Natick, the Chinese initiative is the first globally to transition the technology from a research experiment to a commercially available service, cementing a major new frontier in the global race for greener, more efficient computing power.
