AI companies look to the ocean as a place to put more data centers

As artificial intelligence's appetite for computing power strains traditional infrastructure, tech companies are literally diving deeper for solutions. Microsoft tested underwater data centers off Scotland and found their servers were eight times more reliable than land-based equivalents — yet abandoned the project anyway. Now China, Japan, Singapore, and others are plunging ahead with their own ocean-based facilities, betting that seawater cooling and renewable energy can cut data center electricity use by thirty percent or more. But per The Conversation, there's a catch: the same seawater that cools the equipment also warms the surrounding ocean. Even small temperature increases — about one degree Celsius reported so far — threaten marine ecosystems already stressed by ocean acidification and climate change, and repairing underwater servers means hauling entire modules to the surface. The real question is whether the ocean can become AI's next frontier without becoming its next environmental casualty.

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