China launches world’s first commercial underwater data centre in Hainan
The project could prove a boon for sustainability, as underwater data centres consume less energy than land-based facilities
The servers manage digital services from restaurant recommendations to travel hacks, and will be installed in a 1,300-tonne underwater data cabin – equivalent to the weight of 1,000 passenger cars – after the first phase of construction was completed in Lingshui county this year.
“We put the entire data cabin in the deep sea because seawater can help cool down the temperature,” Pu Ding, project manager at Shenzhen HiCloud Data Centre Technology, told the Chinese media outlet Financial News.
“Compared to land-based data centres, data centres under the sea can reduce energy consumption needed for cooling, helping to lower operational costs.”
Each cabin, located 35 metres (114.8 feet) underwater, contains 24 server racks capable of hosting 400 to 500 servers, according to Financial News.
Under Hainan’s fourteenth five-year plan, the province proposed building a subsea data centre featuring 100 data cabins. The project is central to an integrated industrial estate focused on developing new technologies for the blue economy.
“This policy update is a response to mounting global demand for data centre services fuelled by advances in generative AI and cloud computing,” said Giulia Interesse, an editor at China Briefing issued by consulting firm Dezan Shira and Associates.
“By opening its borders to full foreign ownership, China is aiming to attract multinational tech giants eager to tap into its market potential,” she added.