The floating data centre has moved from concept to contract. Samsung Heavy Industries and the Dallas firm Mousterian have signed an engineering deal to design one, The Register reported. The first project is bound for Texas.
The pitch is a neat answer to the AI buildout’s two tightest constraints: land and water. A moored facility needs no scarce plot. Owners can tow it elsewhere if plans change. And it can draw on the water around it for cooling.
A data centre built like a ship
Mousterian calls itself a developer of water-adjacent data centre infrastructure. The plan is a series of bespoke moored barges, each carrying 50 megawatts of computing capacity. Samsung will bring the shipbuilding.
The two firms will jointly handle the design and detailed engineering, a step towards a full construction contract. The American Bureau of Shipping will classify the facilities, as it would any vessel.
