China is looking to the ocean to power its artificial intelligence computing ambitions, as it seeks new ways to meet soaring demand for computing power through underwater data centres in eastern and southern China.

Shanghai’s Lingang Special Area, a government-designated free-trade zone designed to attract advanced manufacturing and hi-tech industries, recently saw an underwater data centre (UDC) begin operation, marking the first such facility in the world to be directly linked to an offshore wind farm, according to a report by China’s state broadcaster CCTV last week.

The UDC, located 10 kilometres off Shanghai’s eastern coast and 10 metres under water, was built by Shanghai HiCloud Technology, a subsidiary of Shenzhen-listed marine navigation and communication equipment company Highlander.

With a total investment of 1.6 billion yuan (US$232.4 million) and planned capacity of 24 megawatts, it is viewed as a key pilot project to explore the technical and commercial viability of subsea data centres linked to onshore cloud and telecoms infrastructure. The company said the cluster would be used to power multiple applications including AI, embodied intelligence and autonomous driving.

The company said the cluster would be used to power AI scenarios, as well as embodied intelligence and autonomous driving.

The coastal project in Shanghai comes amid increasing efforts by China to look beyond land – to the seas and even skies – to boost its computing power supply amid surging demand for AI. It follows an earlier project to build a UDC off the southern island province of Hainan, also initiated by Highlander.