- Samsung targets 2028 to commercialize its floating data centers
- Land shortages and application processes would be avoided
- Salt water problems need to be solved
With terrestrial data centers under increased scrutiny for water and energy consumption, and facing increasingly intense local opposition, cloud providers are being forced to think more creatively, and Samsung is now dreaming of a floating data center.
Its subdivision of the Samsung Heavy Industries group now plans to market floating data centers by the second quarter of 2028, and even plans to secure orders ahead of installations.
By floating computing on water, Samsung could overcome land shortages but also reduce cooling requirements by keeping them at a more stable temperature.
Samsung to launch data centers into the water by 2028
The company’s plans include developing a dedicated barge to house servers, electrical infrastructure and onboard power equipment; However, initial deployments would primarily use shore-sourced electricity, taking advantage of existing grid infrastructure but benefiting from the cooling properties of water.
Previous concepts also proposed the idea of using solid oxide fuel cells powered by LNG, while renewable sources such as solar and wind could also be considered.
Samsung also maintains that floating facilities could be delivered more quickly than traditional land-based facilities because they can avoid lengthy permitting processes and use existing shipbuilding manufacturing processes and tools.
However, the concept also has some complexities that need to be addressed, such as water ingress and humidity, the corrosive nature of salt water, and the stability of tides and currents.
“Floating data centers represent a significant new opportunity for the shipbuilding and offshore industries,” concluded Samsung Heavy Industries CEO Sung-an Choi.
Samsung is not the first technology heavyweight to question the potential of floating data centers, especially as power demands increase due to AI pressures.
Recent reports detail how Peter Thiel-backed startup Panthalassa is developing floating data centers using wave energy and ocean water cooling systems.
And in May 226, a floating data center project in Japan gained major backing from Hitachi, which signed a memorandum with shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines to develop and operate the facility.
Chinese authorities and private engineering firm HiCloud Technology also recently announced the launch of a jointly developed $226 million facility of an underwater data center where sealed server modules operate beneath the ocean using seawater for passive cooling.
This 24-megawatt facility processes AI workloads, 5G services, and large-scale data annotation operations that require substantial computing capacity.
Microsoft also previously tested an underwater data center capsules through its Project Natick initiative, carried out near Scotland and California before discontinuing commercial development efforts.
All this while talking about sending data centers into space, of course, and while it’s unclear which one can solve the problem in the long term, floating data centers certainly seem more realistic on a shorter timeline.
Through Seoul Economic Daily
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