Revolutionizing Data Storage Beneath the Waves

As the demand for AI computing power continues to surge, South Korea is looking toward its coastal waters for a potential solution. The city of Ulsan has initiated an ambitious project to develop standardized underwater data centers, aiming to overcome the significant hurdles of land scarcity, energy strain, and high cooling requirements faced by conventional facilities on land.


Strategic Partnership and Funding

Ulsan has teamed up with the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) to bring this vision to life. The project is backed by a substantial budget of approximately KRW 51.1 billion ($37 million), spanning through 2030. The central government is providing the majority of this funding—roughly KRW 40 billion ($29 million)—while local authorities cover the rest.

According to city officials, the primary objective is to finalize a standardized architectural model by 2030. Following this, the transition toward developing a commercial-grade underwater complex is expected to commence in 2031.


Technical Innovations in Subsea Cooling

The pilot project will be situated approximately 20 meters below the surface off the Ulsan coast. The design relies on several key technical pillars:

  • Natural Cooling: Utilizing seawater, which maintains an average annual temperature of 13.3°C, to bypass the need for energy-intensive mechanical refrigeration.
  • Modular Engineering: Implementing standardized, pressure-resistant vessel designs to allow for straightforward future scaling.
  • Efficiency Targets: The project team is striving for a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of roughly 1.2.

In early 2026, SK Telecom joined the initiative, taking charge of GPU-based infrastructure and the management of server operations. This collaboration includes a wide array of academics and industry experts focused on everything from marine vessel structural integrity to the specialized software layers required to manage AI workloads in a submerged environment.


Future Outlook and Commercial Potential

While the initial phase focuses on testing and verification, long-term projections are significantly larger. There is a conceptual proposal for a full-scale commercial buildout requiring an investment of KRW 500 billion ($360 million), with the capacity to host up to 100,000 servers. However, city representatives note that this broader vision depends entirely on the success of the current testing phase.

«The ocean floor represents a promising but unproven answer to Korea's expanding AI infrastructure demands,» experts noted, highlighting that if the Ulsan project proves effective, this underwater model could be replicated along other parts of the Korean coastline, offering a sustainable alternative to traditional land-based data centers.