American startup Panthalassa, which is developing autonomous floating data centers powered by wave energy, has raised $140 million at a valuation of around $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 funding also included contributions from Gigascale Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Unless, and several notable tech investors, including Marc Benioff, Max Levchin, and John Doerr.
According to Panthalassa CEO Garth Sheldon-Coulson, the funds will be used to complete a pilot manufacturing facility in the U.S. and prepare for the deployment of the first commercial Ocean-3 nodes in the Pacific Ocean.
Ocean Data Center
Panthalassa is constructing computing nodes for artificial intelligence. Each node is an 85-meter steel autonomous platform.
The platforms are planned to be placed in the open ocean. Initially, they will be towed horizontally across the water. Then, they will be flipped into a vertical position and will reach their deployment site without a motor, thanks to a specially designed hull that harnesses wave energy.
The exact coordinates are not disclosed, but they will be located in remote areas of the Pacific Ocean, away from shipping routes.
Electricity is generated by the movement of water through built-in turbines, powering AI servers directly on board. The computation results are transmitted to clients via SpaceX's Starlink satellite network.
Being located in the ocean addresses cooling issues: seawater is used to dissipate heat, extending the lifespan of the chips.
Startup representatives claim to 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
Investor interest in Panthalassa is driven by the rapidly growing demand for computing power. Amid the AI boom, the market is already seeking unconventional energy sources for data centers—from restarting nuclear reactors to space solar stations.
Peter Thiel described the startup's concept as a venture into a "new oceanic frontier of computing." He stated that the demand for computing will be enormous, and the search for new energy sources is no longer a fantasy.
The head of Panthalassa noted that energy from the open ocean could become one of the few genuinely scalable clean sources capable of providing tens of terawatts of power—alongside solar, wind, and nuclear energy.
As a reminder, in March, the Australian startup Cortical Labs introduced a "data center" based on human brain cells.