Peter Thiel leads a $140mn investment in Oregon-based Panthalassa, valuing the start-up near $1bn, to develop wave-energy-powered floating data centers for AI computing. The company's 85-meter solid-steel nodes, mostly submerged and seawater-cooled,

2026-05-04

Peter Thiel leads a $140mn investment in Oregon-based Panthalassa, valuing the start-up near $1bn, to develop wave-energy-powered floating data centers for AI computing. The company's 85-meter solid-steel nodes, mostly submerged and seawater-cooled, generate electricity from wave motion to power on-board AI chips connected via Starlink, with no power transmitted to shore. Panthalassa plans to scale pilot manufacturing for commercial deployment next year, backed by investors including Marc Benioff, Max Levchin, and John Doerr, with a team of former SpaceX, NASA, and Tesla engineers.