Aikido plans to submerge AI data centers beneath offshore wind turbines to solve power crisis

Who needs data centers in space when they can float offshore? | TechCrunch

The power crunch for AI data centers has gotten so severe that people -- not just Elon Musk -- are talking about launching servers into space so they can access solar power 24/7. One startup thinks the ocean is a better place for them. Offshore wind developer Aikido is planning to submerge a 100-kilowatt demonstration data center off the coast of Norway this year. The small unit will live in the submerged pods of a floating offshore wind turbine. If all goes well, the company hopes to build a larger version to deploy off the coast of the UK in 2028. That model will sport a 15 megawatt to 18 megawatt turbine that will feed a 10 megawatt to 12 megawatt data center. The move offshore could solve a few challenges. Proximity to power is an obvious one, since the source will sit overhead. Winds offshore are more consistent than onshore, and a modest battery could bridge any lulls. Submerged data centers could eliminate concerns from NIMBY groups -- "not in my backyard" -- who oppose data centers near their properties over noise and and pollution concerns. Lastly, by floating in cold seawater, cooling the servers would be a simpler proposition. (Cooling is one particularly vexing issue for orbital data centers, since they need to employ different techniques in the vacuum of space.) But for all the challenges offshore data centers solve, they introduce a few more. The ocean is a harsh environment. While submerged servers wouldn't be battered by waves, they also wouldn't be completely stationary, so they'd need to be fully battened down. Seawater is also corrosive, so any equipment, including the container and power and data connections, will need to be hardened against it. Aikido isn't the first company to propose sinking data centers in seawater. Microsoft first floated the idea over a decade ago, and in 2018 it launched an experiment off the coast of Scotland, which was modestly successful. Only six of more than 850 servers failed in the 25-month trial. (The data hall was filled with inert nitrogen gas, which might help explain the servers' low failure rates.) Microsoft accrued a number of patents over the years, which it open-sourced in 2021. But by 2024, the company had deep-sixed the project.

This Startup Wants to Tuck Data Centers Beneath Offshore Wind Turbines

Amid the AI boom, data centers are proliferating across the U.S., gobbling up resources and straining power grids. Their impact has driven the tech sector to explore alternatives to land-based facilities, and while some companies have set their sights on space, others are looking toward the ocean. One such company is Aikido Technologies, a California-based floating wind power developer. On Tuesday, the startup unveiled plans to put data centers inside the underwater tanks that buoy its turbine platforms. Aikido says the system will host 10 to 12 megawatts of AI compute alongside a 15 to 18 megawatt turbine and integrated battery storage. It plans to test a 100-kilowatt prototype off the coast of Norway by the end of the year, IEEE Spectrum reports. “Before we go off-world, we should go offshore,†Sam Kanner, CEO of Aikido Technologies, said in a statement. “Aikido is well positioned to integrate proven, offshore components with typical data hall construction techniques to build GW-scale AI factories faster, cleaner, cheaper and more efficiently than conventional techniques.†Combining data centers with renewable energy infrastructure in this way is a clever way to approach AI’s energy problem. Traditional data centers consume massive amounts of fossil-fuel-generated electricity. In 2024, U.S. data centers consumed 183 terawatt hours of electricity, or 4% of the country’s total electricity consumption that year. If they continue expanding at the current rate, that figure could more than double by 2030. Aikido aims to reduce AI’s carbon footprint and power grid strain by co-locating data centers with renewable energy generation. Its system will consist of a large platform that supports the turbine in the center, with three legs extending out from the base of the tower. According to IEEE Spectrum, the end of each leg will have a ballast that reaches 66 feet (20 meters) deep. The ballasts will hold tanks mostly filled with fresh water to keep the platform afloat, but the upper part of each tank will also contain a 3 to 4 megawatt data hall. This design is convenient not just for power but for cooling as well. Using the ocean as an “infinite heat sink,†Aikido’s system will employ a passive primary cooling system that transfers heat from the data centers through the steel walls of the ballast tanks and into the surrounding seawater. The company claims the thermal impact on the ocean will be limited to “a few meters†around the structure. The plan is to eventually build offshore wind farms capable of supporting 30 megawatts to more than 1 gigawatt of compute, meeting the rapidly growing demand for high-density AI infrastructure while mitigating the industry’s energy consumption and environmental impact. Aikido isn’t the only company developing undersea data centers, but it does appear to be the only one building compute power directly into offshore wind infrastructure. It’s worth noting, however, that WestfalenWind-Group in Germany has entered the operational development phase of its windCORES project, which is deploying onshore turbines with data centers integrated into the towers. While Aikido’s offshore approach has some advantages, it’s not without drawbacks. One challenge is the current state of the floating offshore wind sector, which is facing significant developmental delays, rising costs, and higher interest rates as government subsidies evaporate. Kanner told Data Center Dynamics that Aikido hopes to kickstart the straggling sector by reframing the business model. But there are technical challenges too. Daniel King, a research fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, told IEEE Spectrum Aikido could face engineering challenges due to the salinity and debris of the ocean environment, which can damage infrastructure. He added that there could also be additional regulatory hurdles aimed at protecting marine life from heat discharge. Prototype testing will offer more insight into how feasible Aikido’s vision truly is. For now, at least, it’s encouraging to see another renewable energy company exploring new ways to support AI’s rapid growth.