The Lingang New Area in Shanghai announced that the world’s first offshore wind-powered underwater data center (UDC) has officially entered full commercial operation; preliminary tests were completed in February 2026. Located roughly 75 kilometers southeast of Shanghai, the data center’s modules sit about 10 meters beneath the sea surface, nestled between Phases 1 and 2 of the Lingang offshore wind farm. Operated by HiCloud Technology, the project was jointly developed by state-owned telecom firms such as China Telecom Shanghai, with total investments reaching approximately 1.6 billion RMB (around $226 million). The 24 MW facility houses nearly 2,000 servers — including GPU clusters supplied by China Telecom and Linkwit — dedicated to AI inference, big data annotation, and computing tasks tied to 5G infrastructure.
Its eco-friendly design follows two key principles: around 95% of its power comes directly from nearby wind turbines, eliminating the need for a land-based grid connection; passive cooling relies on cold seawater rather than conventional cooling towers or freshwater. These measures cut overall energy consumption by 22.8%, reduce land usage by over 90% compared to similar onshore centers, and keep the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) at or below 1.15 — well under China’s mandated cap of 1.25. Built in two phases, the initial 2.3 MW pilot phase concluded in October 2025, paving the way for expansion to its current capacity. Plans are already underway for scaling up to a 500 MW network of underwater data centers. Notably, Microsoft’s Project Natick — an earlier underwater data center trial off Scotland — ceased commercial efforts in 2024; this Chinese facility thus stands as the first operational project of its kind worldwide.