"It really seems like anyone with some renders and a white paper written by someone being gassed up by an overly agreeable AI can get VC funding these days."
Meanwhile China already has data centers in the ocean. Almost anything they do you can bet it’s a good idea [economically] because they’re not at the point to where they can waste billions and still come out on top like the US has done for decades.
Microsoft experimented with oceanic data centers too, and I don’t believe they actually abandoned that project either. It’s just Musk and his ilk are very loud and outsized loudness has a tendency to dominate public discourse.
Meanwhile China already has data centers in the ocean. Almost anything they do you can bet it’s a good idea [economically] because they’re not at the point to where they can waste billions and still come out on top like the US has done for decades.
Microsoft experimented with oceanic data centers too, and I don’t believe they actually abandoned that project either. It’s just Musk and his ilk are very loud and outsized loudness has a tendency to dominate public discourse.
It was concluded in 2024. MS called it a success but also discontinued research and expansion for reasons that don’t seem clear from what I can find.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Natick
Oh, shame to read that. It sounded like it had real potential.