China Sets Up Undersea Data Hub Near Shanghai to Boost AI Growth

• Undersea AI data centre near Shanghai to launch by Sept 2025.
• Wind-powered, seawater-cooled to cut energy and water use.
• Concerns over marine impact and data centre safety raised.

China has begun building a first-of-its-kind underwater AI data centre off the coast of Shanghai to manage the rising demands of energy and water for AI computing infrastructure. The latest data centre follows China's wider ambition to be at the forefront of AI innovation on a global level while experimenting with the sustainability of digital technologies.

Launched in June, the underwater data centre is being built by Chinese company Hailanyun and will be powered by an offshore wind farm nearby. The entity expects to generate 97% of its energy via the wind power. The first phase of the data centre will consist of 198 server racks with two to four servers each that have been optimized for AI. The facility is designed such that the system can provide enough computational ability to train a model the size of OpenAI's GPT-3.5 in one day. It is expected to operationally begin in September of 2025.

The basic design uses ocean water cooling. Chilled ocean water would be pumped through pipes around radiators sitting behind servers, which would absorb excess warmth and effectively replace conventional cooling methods, which are responsible for as much as 40% of the energy consumed by data centres, primarily from the moving and chilling of water. This sustainable method does not rely on groundwater or freshwater systems, and it will vastly reduce the operating footprint.

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Nevertheless, environmental scientists have sounded alarms. The main concern of releasing warm sea water during marine heatwaves will cause more harm to marine ecosystems with poor oxygen levels diluted in warmer ocean temperature, meaning even more stress on marine ecosystems. To complicate matters, a report issued in early 2024 included potential hazards of noise generated from sonar-like emissions disturbed by underwater acoustics which could disrupt the structural integrity of the submerged facilities being affected and endanger data security.

Energy think tank researcher, Shabrina Nadhila, sees the sweeping established frameworks being set by at this stage in China's ocean cooled data centre as a paradigm shift towards low-carbon digital infrastructure which could facilitate transformations for global standards. Yet, she reiterated the importance of sustainability being practiced with marine responsibility and risk alleviation, rather than a one or the other basis.

This emerging development illustrates the friction between the expansion of AI infrastructure, and the safe, secure and responsible management of the environment concerning the needs of countries and technology firms to reduce their direct climate impact in terms of rapidly rising computing demands.