China activates world’s first offshore wind-powered underwater data center

China has put the world’s first offshore wind-powered underwater data center into full commercial operation near Shanghai.

The $226 million facility uses offshore wind electricity and seawater cooling to run nearly 2,000 servers and GPU clusters for AI and telecom workloads.

The project highlights a new model for lower power, water, and land use in data center design as AI demand grows.

It also raises questions about long-term durability, maintenance, and reliability in an underwater environment.