China has developed a new underwater state-of-the-art intelligent computing center in Lingshui City, Hainan Province, which consists of a capsule with more than 400 high-performance servers on the seabed. How it works
China has developed a new underwater state-of-the-art intelligent computing center in Lingshui City, Hainan Province, which consists of a capsule with more than 400 high-performance servers on the seabed. How it works
As reported by Interesting Engineering, the data center has enough power to support 7,000 conversations per second with artificial intelligence assistants running on DeepSeek.
It is noted that the computing power of the center is equivalent to «30,000 high-end gaming computers running simultaneously.» In 1 second, the center can perform the amount of calculations that would take conventional computers one year.
The 18-meter-long, 3.6-meter-diameter capsule connects to client data terminals via a nearby shore station. It uses seawater as a natural coolant to optimize energy efficiency, conserving land, fresh water, and electricity.
The deep location also ensures greater safety and stability for the center. On Tuesday, February 18, the capsule was connected to an energy-efficient data processing cluster near China’s southernmost island of Hainan.
Intelligent computing centers are critical assets for AI research, teaching and application, and will accelerate innovation in the field, said Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. He added that the new center in Hainan will greatly enhance China’s competitive advantage in the «global AI landscape.»
The presentation of the data center comes amid an escalation of technological rivalry between China and the United States, after DeepSeek attracted attention thanks to its powerful artificial intelligence model.
It is noted that many Chinese cities are currently developing their own intelligent computing centers to meet the growing demand for industrial automation. International Data Corp has identified 219 such center projects for the period from 2022 to 2024.
Chinese startup DeepSeek previously said it was suspending the ability for users to top up their API credits due to a lack of server capacity. The company added that this would not affect any existing account credits.
