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Computing at Sea: Floating and Offshore Data Centres as a Pathway to Sustainable AI Infrastructure

arXiv · AI, language, vision and robotics · article · Sep 11, 2026 · UTC

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is transforming data centres into one of the world's fastest-growing sources of electricity demand. As AI systems scale in size and capability, the physical infrastructure supporting computation is approaching critical limits in energy availability, cooling capacity, land use, freshwater consumption, and carbon management. Conventional land-based data centres are increasingly constrained by urban land competition, grid congestion, environmental pressures, and lengthy permitting processes, raising fundamental questions about where future computing

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Evidence & attribution

First collected: 2026-09-20T18:22:04.777Z. This is not the publication date.