Panthalassa to Build Floating AI Data Centers in Washington Following $365M Funding Run

The physical footprint of the artificial intelligence boom is colliding with the limits of the terrestrial power grid. In response, Portland-based ocean-tech startup Panthalassa is taking AI infrastructure off the grid entirely. The company is setting up a pilot manufacturing facility in Vancouver, Washington, in partnership with Thompson Metal Fab, to build its Ocean-3 floating data centers, according to local reports on Saturday.

Unlike conventional marine energy concepts that transmit power back to shore via expensive subsea cables, Panthalassa uses the electricity on-site. Its 85-meter-tall, self-propelled steel nodes capture wave energy to power onboard AI servers, using the surrounding seawater for cooling. The autonomous spheres operate in deep-ocean wave zones and transmit inference data back to customers via low-Earth-orbit satellite networks like Starlink.

The manufacturing push follows a massive capital injection for the decade-old startup, which raised a $140 million Series B led by Peter Thiel in May 2026, followed by a $225 million expansion in August. By shifting compute to the open ocean, Panthalassa aims to bypass the multi-year grid interconnection queues and local zoning battles that are currently throttling land-based data center expansion. If the Ocean-3 nodes can survive the punishing conditions of the northern Pacific, they could open a virtually limitless, zero-emission power source for the next generation of AI models.