An underwater data centre being developed by Chinese maritime technology company Highlander is seen under construction at a shipyard in Nantong, in China's eastern Jiangsu province, on September 11, 2025

“The technology was trialled by Microsoft off the coast of Scotland in 2018, but the Chinese project, to be sunk in mid-October, is one of the world’s first commercial services of its kind.It will serve clients such as China Telecom and a state-owned AI computing company and is part of a broader government push to lower data centres’ carbon footprint.“Underwater facilities can save around 90 per cent of energy consumption for cooling,” said Yang, vice-president of Highlander.Projects like this are currently focused on showing “technological feasibility”, said expert Shaolei Ren from the University of California, Riverside.”

Source : China tests underwater data centres to reduce AI carbon footprint | South China Morning Post