Peter Thiel invested $140 million in building data centers in the ocean - ForkLog: cryptocurrencies, AI, singularity, the future

# Peter Thiel invested $140 million in building data centers in the ocean

American startup Panthalassa, developing autonomous floating data centers powered by wave energy, raised $140 million at an estimated valuation of about $1 billion.

Today we’re announcing @_panthalassa’s $140M Series B, led by Peter Thiel, with participation from John Doerr and many other incredible investors. The mission: unlock the ocean as another planetary-scale energy resource for humanity. First stop: compute. pic.twitter.com/uNO2hehyEf

— Garth Sheldon-Coulson (@garthsc) May 4, 2026

The round was led by billionaire Peter Thiel through his personal fund. According to the Financial Times, the financing also involved companies Gigascale Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Unless, and a number of well-known technology investors, including Marc Benioff, Max Levchin, and John Doerr.

According to Panthalassa CEO Garth Sheldon-Coulson, the raised funds will be used to complete the pilot production plant in the United States and prepare for the deployment of the first commercial Ocean-3 nodes in the Pacific Ocean.

Data center in the ocean

Panthalassa is building computing nodes for artificial intelligence. Each one is an 85-meter steel autonomous platform

The platforms are planned to be placed in the open ocean. In the first stage, they are expected to be towed through the water horizontally. Then they will flip into a vertical position and be able to reach the deployment location without an engine—thanks to a special hull shape that uses wave energy.

Ocean-2 node. Source: X The company does not disclose exact coordinates: it is remote areas of the Pacific Ocean outside shipping routes.

Electricity is generated by the movement of water through built-in turbines and powers AI servers directly aboard the platform. The computing results are transmitted to clients via SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network.

Placing data centers in the ocean solves the cooling problem: seawater is used to dissipate heat, which increases the lifespan of the chips.

Startup representatives say they have already tested several prototypes—Ocean-1, Ocean-2, and Wavehopper—in real-world conditions. The commercial launch of the first full-scale Ocean-3 is scheduled for 2027.

Exotic energy sources for AI

Investors’ interest in Panthalassa is explained by the rapidly growing shortage of computing power. Against the backdrop of the AI boom, the market is already looking for unconventional power sources for data centers—from restarting nuclear reactors to space-based solar stations.

Peter Thiel called the startup’s idea a way “into a new oceanic frontier of computing.” In his words, demand for computing will be enormous, and the search for new energy sources is no longer science fiction.

Panthalassa’s head noted that open-ocean energy could become one of the very few truly scalable clean sources capable of delivering tens of terawatts of power—alongside sunlight, wind, and nuclear.

Recall that in March, Australian startup Cortical Labs unveiled a “data center” based on human brain cells.