Overview

• Highlander has finished building a large server capsule near Shanghai and plans a mid-October submersion to serve China Telecom and a state AI computing client.
• The company claims underwater deployment will reduce energy used for cooling by about 90 percent.
• More than 95 percent of the facility’s electricity is slated to come from nearby offshore wind farms, according to Highlander.
• Engineers cite tougher-than-expected hurdles, including corrosion protection, waterproofing, maintenance access via an elevator, and complex subsea connectivity.
• Researchers flag uncertain thermal impacts on marine ecosystems and potential sound‑wave attack vectors, as the effort builds on state support that included 40 million yuan for a 2022 Hainan pilot.