In May 2026, an unusual data center appeared in the Lingang area: the servers were placed underwater, 10 km offshore at a depth of 10 meters. The facility has a capacity of 24 MW and is powered by a neighboring offshore wind farm. The project’s cost exceeded $236 million (1.6 billion yuan).
Why move servers underwater? The main advantage is natural cooling by seawater. According to Chinese authorities, this cuts electricity consumption by more than 20% compared to conventional land-based data centers. For comparison: in traditional data centers, cooling accounts for 25 to 40% of all energy consumed. The second benefit is saving fresh water. The problem is indeed pressing: this week, the UN Institute for Water Resources warned that by 2030 data centers could consume up to 9.3 trillion liters of water per year. That would be enough to supply the entire population of sub-Saharan Africa with water for a whole year.
The project was carried out by HiCloud Technology and China Communications Construction. For HiCloud, this is already its second underwater data center — the company launched its first commercial facility of this type in 2023 on Hainan Island. But the Shanghai one became the first to run on offshore wind power.
