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Startup Raises $140 Million to Deploy Wave-Powered Floating AI Data Centers
A U.S.-based company has secured $140 million in new funding to develop autonomous floating nodes that generate electricity from ocean waves to power onboard AI computing systems. The nodes would use seawater for cooling and transmit results via satellite.
May 15, 8:20 AM·2m read3 sources
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A company developing floating AI data centers has raised $140 million in Series B funding to advance its plan to place computing power at sea. The round brings the company's total funding to $210 million and was led by an investor focused on frontier technologies.
The money will be used to complete a pilot manufacturing facility near Portland, Oregon, and to deploy the first Ocean-3 pilot nodes in the northern Pacific Ocean later this year. The floating nodes are designed to capture wave motion to generate electricity while using surrounding seawater to cool onboard servers.
The company has spent a decade refining the technology for power generation, computing and autonomous operations at sea. Earlier prototypes, Ocean-1 and Ocean-2, were tested in 2021 and 2024. Instead of relying on land-based power grids, the nodes would produce their own electricity from waves in energy-dense regions far from shore.
The systems would perform AI inference tasks, responding to prompts after models have been trained elsewhere. Results would be sent back to users via low-Earth-orbit satellite links.
Each node consists of a surface structure that bobs with the waves and a long submerged tube that oscillates to drive internal turbines. The AI servers are housed in a sealed compartment cooled by seawater. This approach aims to address the massive electricity and cooling demands of AI data centers without drawing on terrestrial infrastructure.
The company plans commercial deployment in 2027 after demonstrating reliable AI inference with the Ocean-3 series. However, operating far offshore introduces limitations. Satellite connections provide lower bandwidth and higher latency than fiber-optic cables used by land-based data centers, making coordination between multiple nodes more difficult.
