KIOST will build an underwater data center with tens of thousands of servers off the coast of South Korea

The Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) recently announced the signing of a cooperation agreement with GS Engineering & Construction and POSCO. Together they are planning a study of technologies for constructing environmentally friendly underwater data centers, the press service of the institute reports.

POSCO is a South Korean steel manufacturer and GS E&C is a civil engineering contractor. The agreement is focused on the development of technology for constructing a complex of underwater data centers to accommodate 100 thousand servers (Possibly an auto-translation error – Ed.). The seawater cooling system will reduce energy consumption for these purposes by 70% compared to land-based data centers.

Project participants intend to allocate funds for national research related to the construction and maintenance of underwater data centers. KIOST expects to become a leader in the development of technologies for the construction of underwater eco-friendly data centers, as well as in the areas of carbon neutrality and energy conservation. In addition, the project is intended to help revitalize the local economy, and the underwater sites themselves can be used to test other marine equipment.

Image source: KIOST

Plans for an underwater data center were first discussed in 2022 as part of a wider underwater settlement project. 23 companies are involved in the project, including giants like SK Telecom and Lotte Engineering. The joint team of scientists plans to complete work on a prototype of an underwater complex with a research module, a data center module and a residential module by the end of the year. The object should be placed at a depth of 30 m near the port of Sinri Port. Three people will live in the underwater complex. The tests will last until 2026. The total cost of the project is estimated at ₩37.3 billion won ($26.8 million), part of the funds received from the country’s budget.

Although subsea data centers are still a niche solution, many subsea data centers are already under construction or have been built around the world, DataCenter Dynamics notes. Chinese HiCloud last year announced the start of commercial operation of its underwater data centers located at a depth of 35 m off the coast of Hainan Island. A total of 100 modules are planned to be put into operation. In May, startup Subsea Cloud invited potential clients to test its underwater data center off the coast of Norway. The highlight of the company’s data center is that we are talking specifically about deep-sea options.

California-based startup NetworkOcean plans to deploy a 500 kW capsule data center in the San Francisco Bay. Finally, Microsoft deployed an underwater data center in 2018 as part of the Project Natick initiative, but has since canceled the project, and some of the patents related to submersible data centers were released for free use in 2021. The KIOST project differs from others in that they intend to place people underwater in addition to equipment, and not just operate a sealed, maintenance-free module.