Surging artificial intelligence workloads have left tech companies struggling with grid constraints and sluggish land-based real estate development. Washington, D.C.-based Drogue secured venture backing to develop offshore infrastructure that taps ocean thermal energy conversion to generate power and cool computing hardware simultaneously. The approach aims to deliver a faster, self-sustaining deployment model that operates independently from terrestrial municipal utilities. By deploying on deep-sea vessels that transmit data directly over the ocean, the company avoids the need to lay costly subsea power cables back to shore.
Key points
Floating ocean facilities offer a viable bypass to the severe electrical grid and land co…: Floating ocean facilities offer a viable bypass to the severe electrical grid and land constraints hampering artificial intelligence data center expansion.
The proprietary closed-loop ammonia thermal system generates electricity while simultaneo…: The proprietary closed-loop ammonia thermal system generates electricity while simultaneously fulfilling the heavy cooling requirements of onboard computing hardware.
The company has secured preliminary approval in principle from the American Bureau of Shi…: The company has secured preliminary approval in principle from the American Bureau of Shipping to operate deep-sea facilities designed to remain stationed at sea for a decade.
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Anyone who has weathered a hurricane can tell you that the oceans — which fuel the storms — contain a tremendous amount of energy. Thanks to global warming, they’re holding more than ever.
A new startup wants to harness that energy to power data centers.
Drogue, which has kept a low profile until now, is building a system that harvests heat from the ocean to power data centers on board floating vessels. According to co-founder and CEO Sam Sipe, the first prototype should be bobbing around the ocean, crunching bits, less than two years from now.
The goal, Sipe said, is to help data center developers deploy servers in AI-friendly timelines. “The data center industry is a real estate game, and so they’re playing on 8- to 10-year timelines, including interoperability with utilities and [independent system operators]” that manage regional power grids, he said. “AI demand has increased 10x in just the last three years. It’s completely incompatible.”
Drogue was founded just six months ago in Washington, DC, and the startup told TechCrunch exclusively that it has already raised $20…
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