Data Centers Turn to Oceans and Space Amid Surging AI-Driven Energy Demand, Says GlobalData

The growing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud services, and digital applications is driving unprecedented demand for computing power, placing huge pressure on traditional land-based data centers. To alleviate some of this pressure and meet the needs of increasingly complex AI workloads, alternative environments must be explored. Oceans and space offer abundant cooling, energy, and deployment flexibility, positioning them as the next frontier for data center infrastructure, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s Strategic Intelligence report, “Deep Dive into Data Centers’ Next Frontier: Oceans and Space,” reveals that building data center infrastructure in the ocean and space could potentially tackle the upcoming energy crunch.

Martina Raveni, Strategic Intelligence Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Floating and underwater data centers provide scalable, efficient solutions by using seawater for cooling and by accessing renewable energy near coastlines. These modular facilities reduce reliance on land and potable water, improve latency for coastal populations, and mitigate some of the climate risks posed by terrestrial data centers.”

Pilot projects across North America, Europe, and Asia have demonstrated the viability of ocean-based deployments. These facilities can work at megawatt scales, with high rack density, and the potential for long-term use.

In June 2025, China has recently taken a major step in this direction with the launch of its first commercial-scale underwater data center (UDC) powered by offshore wind energy in waters off Shanghai, China. The project plans to scale capacity to 24 megawatts (MW) over two phases, achieving a power usage effectiveness (PUE) below 1.15, a benchmark for energy efficiency. The UDC will be composed of groups of modular data units, which will be cooled by seawater and will source 97% of their power from offshore wind farms.

Raveni adds: “Space-based data centers push these innovations further, using the extreme cold of space and unlimited solar energy to power high-performance computing. Lower launch costs and advancements in reusable rockets, in-orbit networking, and the selection of optimal orbits make space data centers increasingly feasible. They provide low-latency processing and storage capabilities directly to satellites and spacecraft, while complementing terrestrial infrastructures.”

The use of ocean-based centers is currently limited, but as technology improves and the benefits of these facilities become more widely recognized, their presence will expand over the next decade.

Raveni concludes: “Fully operational orbital or lunar data centers remain largely experimental, but numerous opportunities for partnerships, funding, and research in space-based computing exist.”