PORTLAND, Ore., May 5, 2026, 05:21 PDT
Panthalassa, the ocean-energy startup out of Portland, Oregon, has secured $140 million in Series B funding, led by Peter Thiel, the company said. With the new capital, Panthalassa plans to complete its pilot factory just outside Portland and ramp up deployment of its Ocean-3 AI-powered wave nodes in the northern Pacific. Thiel called it a move that “opened the ocean frontier.” Business Wire
It’s all about timing. The International Energy Agency reports that data-center electricity use jumped 17% in 2025, with AI-specific centers spiking 50%. Looking ahead, the IEA expects total data-center demand to almost double, hitting 950 terawatt-hours by 2030, measured in electricity consumption. “There is no AI without energy,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. IEA
Investors, feeling the squeeze, have started backing more unusual bets on compute and energy. Panthalassa isn’t talking about bringing offshore electricity ashore—instead, it wants to send the chips out to sea, tapping the ocean itself for both electricity and cooling. The company describes its project as a clean-energy platform “to power compute and more.” Panthalassa
Ocean-3 nodes are self-contained steel platforms, floating out in rough, high-energy waters. Their job: running AI inference—the computational step where trained models generate results—all while making use of ocean water for cooling. That tackles one of the biggest headaches and expenses for data centers on land.
The Financial Times pegs Panthalassa’s valuation near $1 billion. That’s a steep tag for a firm just pivoting from prototypes to actual manufacturing—a high-stakes bet on technology yet to demonstrate consistent performance, far out at sea, on a commercial scale.
Investors on the deal featured John Doerr, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, Max Levchin’s SciFi Ventures, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, Fortescue Ventures, and Super Micro Computer. Several previous backers came in again—Founders Fund, Gigascale Capital, and Lowercarbon Capital among them. “Build factories, deploy fleets”—that’s what Panthalassa is gearing up for, according to co-founder and CEO Garth Sheldon-Coulson. Doerr described the system as a “triple win.” ESG Today
Panthalassa isn’t the only one pushing AI infrastructure off crowded land grids. In March, Redmond’s Starcloud picked up $170 million for its space-based data center push, GeekWire reported. In the wave-energy camp, Seattle’s Oscilla Power and Oregon State University spinoff C-Power are among the other regional players.
The ocean poses real challenges. Saltwater eats away at equipment, marine growth gums things up, storms hit hard, and satellite links lag — all of which can drive up costs or make certain AI workloads a tough fit offshore. And if something breaks far out at sea, fixing it isn’t cheap or quick.
Now, it’s down to whether the tech performs in the real world. Panthalassa’s already put Ocean-1, Ocean-2, and Wavehopper models through their paces; next up, Ocean-3 units are slated for northern Pacific waters by 2026, with commercial scaling eyed for 2027. Success means Panthalassa can offer compute—no new substation required. If not, AI developers stick to chasing grid power onshore.
