China turns to offshore wind farms, subsea data centres to ease AI computing bottleneck
SCMP Tech / 4/8/2026
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Key Points
- China is addressing AI compute bottlenecks by expanding power generation capacity through offshore wind farms and linking this to data infrastructure buildouts.
- A key example highlighted is an underwater (subsea) data centre located about 10 kilometres off Shanghai’s eastern coast.
- The subsea data centre was built by Shanghai HiCloud Technology, positioning the project as part of a broader strategy to improve availability and efficiency of AI computing resources.
- By co-locating or coordinating new energy sources with high-demand compute facilities, China aims to reduce constraints from electricity and infrastructure limitations on AI workloads.
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...
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