China is building underwater data centers that use seawater for cooling and 97% wind energy for power to meet rising AI demand.

A $223M facility six miles off Shanghai will hold up to 792 AI-capable servers and launch in September.

It’s expected to train models like GPT-3.5 in a day while using 30% less electricity than land-based centers. Microsoft tested a similar idea with Project Natick in 2018 but shelved it.

Meanwhile, China is scaling fast. Environmental concerns remain, but South Korea and Japan are already exploring similar offshore data solutions.