EMMA STREET
The high water demand of data centers causes significant problems. Large volumes of often potable, drinking-quality water are used for cooling, putting pressure on local water supplies and competing with households and agriculture. One way around this is to do what China has done — place data centers in a location where they're literally surrounded by non-potable water — the ocean. There have been several experimental underwater projects — like Microsoft's Project Natick, which concluded in 2020 — but currently, the only operational, commercial underwater data center in the world is in Hainan Province in China.
Over the past few months, this data center has begun operating as a large-scale artificial-intelligence computing facility, like DC's "AI Alley". Sealed inside steel capsules placed on the seabed near Lingshui, rows of servers now perform the same kinds of tasks as those in conventional data centers — processing data, running cloud services, and training AI systems — but are cooled naturally by surrounding seawater rather than by energy-intensive air-conditioning. This recent shift toward high-density AI computing marks the most advanced stage of a project that aims to combine computing power with lower energy use and a smaller land footprint.
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