Why South Korea Wants To Build Data Centres Underwater Now

Livemint

Published17 Aug 2026, 06:53 PM IST

Land is running out and power grids are overwhelmed as the AI boom drives soaring demand for data centres. South Korea’s answer: put the servers under the sea. The city of Ulsan is developing an underwater data centre that could house up to 100,000 servers, sitting around 20 metres below the surface. Seawater will provide natural cooling, taking advantage of the area’s average water temperature of 13.3°C and potentially cutting carbon emissions by about 12%. With data centre power demand in the Seoul region set to exceed 1,450 MW by 2028 and only 1.9% of applications approved, electricity availability has become the biggest constraint. Going underwater offers a radical but practical solution.