As AI workloads explode, data centers are running into increasingly serious problems with power, land, and cooling. South Korea is now testing an unconventional solution: putting data centers beneath the ocean, where naturally cold seawater could dramatically reduce the need for energy-intensive cooling.
Ulsan’s $37 million project is still experimental, but the implications are significant. If the technology proves reliable, underwater computing could become a new piece of the AI infrastructure puzzle, potentially supporting massive server deployments without consuming valuable urban land. The harder question is whether engineers can make subsea systems economical, maintainable, and reliable enough to scale.
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