Beijing Highlander Digital Technology
Highlander, a Shenzhen-listed maritime equipment maker, builds and operates sealed data-center modules on the seabed through its HiCloud subsidiary, cooled passively by seawater and increasingly powered by nearby offshore wind. Its Hainan cluster began commercial operation in 2023 and was expanded in 2025; a 24MW offshore-wind-powered facility off Shanghai reached full operation in 2026, with a stated ambition to reach 500MW. It is the only company running genuinely commercial, revenue-generating underwater data centers.
Ecosystem functionThe category's only operator with paying customers underwater, years ahead of every Western subsea startup and of the hyperscaler that abandoned the idea.
Business modelCommercial subsea data center capacity
Sources · 3 ↓
- https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/hiclouds-offshore-wind-powered-underwater-data-center-up-and-running-off-coast-of-shanghai/
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/09/worlds-first-wind-powered-underwater-datacentre-starts-operating-in-china
- https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/chinas-underwater-data-center-expanded/