- Samsung is targeting 2028 to commercialize its floating data centers
- Land shortages and application processes would be avoided
- Salt water challenges must be remedied
With land-based data centers under increased scrutiny over water and energy consumption and facing intensified local opposition, cloud providers are being forced to think more creatively, and Samsung is now dreaming of a floating data center.
Its Samsung Heavy Industries group subsidiary now plans to commercialize floating data centers by Q2 2028, and even plans to secure orders ahead of installations.
By floating computers on water, Samsung would be able to overcome the lack of land, but also reduce cooling needs by keeping them at a more stable temperature.
Samsung will float data centers on water by 2028
The company’s plans include developing a dedicated barge to house servers, electrical infrastructure and onboard power equipment, but initial installations will primarily use land-based electricity, leveraging existing grid infrastructure but taking advantage of water’s cooling properties.
Earlier concepts also suggested the idea of using LNG-powered solid oxide fuel cells, while renewable sources such as solar and wind could also be considered.
Samsung also claims that floating facilities can be delivered faster than traditional land-based facilities because they can avoid lengthy permitting processes and use existing shipbuilding manufacturing processes and tooling.
However, the concept also has some complexities to address, such as water intrusion and humidity, the corrosive nature of saltwater, and stability in tides and currents.
“Floating data centers represent a major new opportunity for the shipbuilding and offshore industries,” concluded Samsung Heavy Industries CEO Sung-an Choi.
Samsung isn’t the first tech heavyweight to consider the potential of floating data centers, especially as power demands increase due to AI pressures.
Recent reports described how startup Panthalassa, backed by Peter Thiel, is developing floating data centers using wave energy and seawater cooling systems.
And in May 226, a floating data center project in Japan received significant 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 installation of an underwater data center, where sealed server modules operate under the sea using seawater for passive cooling.
This 24-megawatt installation handles artificial intelligence workloads, 5G services and large data annotation operations that require significant computing capacity.
Microsoft has also previously tested submerged data centers capsules through its Project Natick initiative, conducted near Scotland and California, before ceasing commercial development efforts.
All this while talk of data centers being sent up into space plays out, of course, and while it’s unclear what might solve the problem in the long term, floating data centers certainly seem more realistic on a shorter timeline.
Via Seoul Economic Daily
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