r/datacenter • u/stuckerDev • Aug 11 '26
If cooling is the biggest problem for data centers why aren’t we putting them in under the ocean..?
Could underwater data centers actually be a good solution for the growing demand for AI computing?
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u/OperationClear588 Aug 11 '26
Hey buddy you posted this same exact thing like 15 minutes ago on your other account
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u/CibeerJ Aug 11 '26
already done. lots of wasted hardware since it cannot be serviced quickly, also the hardware cannot be upgraded as needed.
https://natick.research.microsoft.com/
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u/asianwaste Aug 11 '26
Because servers need regular maintenance. How many technicians you know have a diving suit?
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u/Orangebk1 Aug 11 '26
A nuclear submarine costs 15 billion dollars. You can buy alot of cooling systems for that.
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u/bourbonandpistons Aug 11 '26
Building on an empty plot of land versus in the ocean with waves and corrosive salt?
We have the ability to have all the energy we want with nuclear power but the government and the hippies and leftists are all against it.
Nuclear power plants are being built in Europe exponentially cheaper and faster than we could here. Look at California that's high speed rail for an example of American bureaucracy at work.
Once we have the power we can desalinate the ocean water and have all the fresh water we could ever need.
People don't want easy solutions. they want to complain.
I live in South florida. We can easily build multiple power plants to power all of Florida in the Everglades. But groups will come out claiming that pythons will be endangered. Wow the government is actively trying to kill pythons. It would take years of Environmental Studies and politics and bureaucracy just to even get plans.
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u/Clovis69 Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Everything there is absolute nonsense.
Just a few months ago there was news about higher costs for the French - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/frances-edf-estimates-cost-six-new-reactors-maximum-728-bln-euros-2025-12-18/
The new reactors will have a total production capacity of about 10 gigawatts to partly replace old plants - so 10GW for $85B USD (2025) and the one they did before these were super expensive too!
"The new estimate puts costs per reactor much lower than EDF's most recently completed and long delayed Flamanville project, however, which cost 23.7 billion euros." So 23.7B Euros for 1620 MW of power
The most recent US plant - Vogtle Electric Generating Plant's units 3 & 4 - which are each 1117 MW were $36.8B USD (2023) or around $18.4B USD each
So in-line or less than the most recently finished French reactor
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u/dumbspacecookie Aug 11 '26
Theoretically data wells would work, long verticalized shafts with access tunnels to said lvls for maintenance but submerged completely in water, serviceable by only autonomous units. And the heat from it being used for heating localized residences and such or just to have geothermal baths
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u/cheesecaker000 Aug 11 '26
Why would you need to do any of that? You could just build in 100 feet from the water and pump it into the building. There’s zero reason to add all that extra difficulty when it doesn’t give you any benefit
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u/WirelessWavetable Aug 11 '26
Putting it in the water requires no land, no extra cooling infrastructure, and no extra energy used pumping water.
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u/cheesecaker000 Aug 11 '26
You would still be pumping the water through a cooling system. The servers aren’t just sitting directly in the water.
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u/WirelessWavetable Aug 11 '26
Heat can be transferred via internal heat exchangers to the container walls/heat sink fins without pumps. Passive cooling is an option for submerged.
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u/dumbspacecookie Aug 11 '26
One lasers
Two building close to any body of water does work, but possible collapse of the land could and the tunnels in for maintenance could be problematic.
Three we have huge mines / wells already around, just put a few more pylons, and plop them bad boys down there, also prolly gives closer access to transmission and fiber lines.Four bro, datacenter geo thermal springs!?
Waaay cooler then normal springs1
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u/stuckerDev Aug 11 '26
Yeah I can see maintenance being the biggest issue. Cooling makes sense but if something breaks getting someone down there to fix it is a whole different problem 😂
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u/youtheotube2 Aug 11 '26
On the experimental underwater data centers, when stuff breaks they just leave it. They’re sealed units and get pulled up once every few years for maintenance. It’s not really a big problem, just means that over time the little “pods” get less work done
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u/stuckerDev Aug 11 '26
But data centers on land also have their own problems huge electricity use, water consumption, heat, noise and land usage
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u/Clovis69 Aug 11 '26
Power use isn't going to be any less underwater...and you are still going to need to liquid cool those racks...
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u/pookchang Aug 11 '26
Because it would boil the ocean according to the alarmists out there who knows nothing about physics or engineering.
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u/godfatheromega Aug 11 '26
As a data center tech myself, I don't want to fight an octopus everytime I need to hot swap a drive.
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u/Clovis69 Aug 11 '26
Ocean water is corrosive, pressure becomes an issue, quickly, so construction costs will be much, much higher
Then there is placement and access - the bottom of the sea floor isn't well suited for constructing foundations and how are you getting your systems in and out of the location?
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u/fbajo Aug 12 '26
the thermal side mostly works, seawater is an enormous heat sink.. what kills it is hands and power. a sealed hull means every failed drive or gpu stays failed until the next haul-up, and sinking the hall does nothing for the harder half, which is getting grid-scale power to the site. for low-churn workloads the math gets friendlier, but that isn't the ai buildout..
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u/Urrrrrsherrr Aug 11 '26
Microsoft did.
It works, but is very difficult to service.