China Launches World’s First Commercial Underwater Data Centre Near Shanghai

China Launches World’s First Commercial Underwater Data Centre Near Shanghai

China has officially commenced operations at what is being described as the world’s first commercial underwater data centre, marking a significant milestone in digital infrastructure and sustainable computing.

The facility, developed by HiCloud Technology in collaboration with China Communications Construction Company, is located about 35 metres beneath the ocean surface off the coast of Shanghai.

According to project details, the underwater centre houses nearly 2,000 servers, including advanced GPU clusters designed to support artificial intelligence (AI) applications and high-performance computing tasks.

One of the facility’s key innovations is its cooling system. Unlike conventional data centres that rely heavily on energy-intensive industrial cooling equipment, the underwater installation uses surrounding seawater to passively absorb heat generated by the servers. This significantly reduces energy consumption and operational costs.

The operators said the facility has achieved a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of below 1.15, outperforming the global industry average of about 1.5. A lower PUE indicates that a larger proportion of electricity is used directly for computing rather than cooling and other support systems.

The project also eliminates the need for freshwater for cooling purposes and reduces land usage by more than 90 percent compared to traditional land-based data centres.

Industry experts view the development as a potential breakthrough in addressing the growing energy demands of data centres, particularly as the expansion of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and big data continues to increase global demand for computing power.

The underwater data centre is located in the Lingang Special Area of Shanghai and is expected to serve as a model for future sustainable digital infrastructure projects.

The initiative highlights China’s efforts to combine technological innovation with energy efficiency as countries worldwide seek solutions to the environmental challenges associated with rapidly growing digital networks.

China Launches World’s First Commercial Underwater Data Centre Near Shanghai