BBS: TELESC.NET.BR
Assunto: Data Centers out to Sea
De: Mike Powell
Data: Fri, 8 May 2026 08:18:44 -0500
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'We're now ready': Peter Thiel-backed company raises $1bn to send data
centers out to sea to harness 'tens of terawatts of new capacity potential'
in the power of the open ocean
Date:
Thu, 07 May 2026 21:45:00 +0000
Description:
Peter Thiel backs Panthalassa's $140 million round to build floating AI data
centers powered by ocean waves, bypassing land-based energy constraints
FULL STORY
A US-based ocean technology company,
Panthalassa, is advancing its plan to relocate data processing into open
waters , backed by fresh funding that places its valuation near $1 billion.
The start-up has spent ten years developing wave energy technology and is now
backed by PayPal co-founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel, who led
a $140 million investment round into the company. "We're now ready to build
factories, deploy fleets, and provide a sustainable new source of energy for
humanity," said Garth Sheldon-Coulson, co-founder and CEO of Panthalassa.
Bypassing the grid by going offshore: Panthalassas idea connects two pressures
which rarely meet directly rising demand for AI computing and limits on
land-based energy systems.
By placing both energy generation and computation offshore, the company
argues it can bypass grid constraints and cooling challenges.
The plan is to use the bobbing motion of waves to force water through a
turbine, generating electricity to power AI chips directly at sea.
The company houses this entire system inside what it calls a node, an
85-metre-long solid steel structure that sits mostly below the ocean surface.
A hermetically sealed container inside holds the AI server, which is cooled
by the surrounding seawater.
The vessels can drive themselves to their destination using the shape of
their hull, requiring no engine or fuel.
Unlike other ocean energy projects, Panthalassa will never transmit
electricity back to land - instead, AI chips on board will receive user
queries via SpaceX's Starlink satellite connection and send inference tokens
back the same way.
Terawatts of untapped energy: "There are three sources of energy
on the planet with tens of terawatts of new capacity potential: solar,
nuclear, and the open ocean," Sheldon-Coulson said.
Waves are created by wind, and wind is created by heat from the sun. That
means waves are essentially twice concentrated sunlight that keeps moving
even when the wind stops.
The company's nodes have no hinges, flaps, or gearboxes that could break down
in hostile ocean conditions, making them easier to manufacture at scale.
They use only earth-abundant materials like steel, with robust supply chains
that support rapid deployment a huge opportunity for data center
development.
The scale of this opportunity has attracted attention from some of Silicon
Valley's most prominent investors.
"The future demands more compute than we can imagine," said Peter Thiel.
"Extra-terrestrial solutions are no longer science fiction. Panthalassa has
opened the ocean frontier."
John Doerr, an early investor in Google and Amazon , called Panthalassa's
system a game changer in addressing global energy needs and clean power
generation.
"It is a triple win: workers benefit, communities benefit, and we gain a
strategic asset that strengthens American technological leadership," Doerr
added.
Panthalassa plans to deploy its Ocean-3 pilot nodes in the northern Pacific
Ocean sometime this year, with commercial deployments targeted for 2027.
The company has demonstrated its capabilities with Ocean-1, Ocean-2, and
Wavehopper prototypes in 2021 and 2024.
However, scaling from prototypes to a commercial fleet of hundreds or
thousands of nodes is a completely different challenge.
The ocean is unforgiving, and maintaining floating data centers in remote
waters far from any port will require logistics that no company has ever
managed before.
Saltwater corrosion, biofouling, and storm damage are not theoretical
problems for marine equipment - they are daily realities that have sunk many
promising ocean energy ventures before this one.
Thiel's money buys time and manufacturing capacity, but it does not buy
immunity from the laws of physics or the hostility of the sea.
Unlike projects that sink sealed containers to the ocean floor or launch
server racks into orbit , these floating nodes must first survive the
unpredictable surface of the open ocean before delivering any compute value.
Via Financial Times
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/were-now-ready-peter-thiel-backed-company-raises
-usd1bn-to-send-data-centers-out-to-sea-to-harness-tens-of-terawatts-of-new-ca
pacity-potential-in-the-power-of-the-open-ocean
$$
--- MultiMail/DOS
* Origin: Capitol City Hub (1:2320/105)
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