achieved by Microsoft’s experimental Project Natick module
Source ↗ Offshore compute infrastructure
The cloud
meets the sea.
A fleet of autonomous data-center vessels, operating as one resilient offshore cloud—built for the next wave of AI.
44°10′N
28°39′E
10 MW vessel unit
1.10 target PUE
CONCEPT VESSEL / REV. 01
01 / 07
Natural seawater cooling
Zero freshwater use
Modular deployment
Fleet-level redundancy
Renewable-ready power
Natural seawater cooling
Zero freshwater use
01 The pressure
AI needs a new
place to live.
Data centers are running into hard physical limits: constrained grid capacity, scarce land, water-intensive cooling and multi-year approvals. Black Sea Compute moves standardized infrastructure offshore and grows it one vessel at a time.
Marine space is not free or unregulated. The opportunity is to build a repeatable, permitted platform—not to avoid regulation.
02 The system
One cloud.
Many vessels.
Compute, storage and network traffic are distributed across independently powered modules. Losing one vessel reduces capacity—it does not take the cloud offline.
SHORE CONTROL
Grid · fiber · operations
2× DIVERSE FIBER
VESSEL ACompute + storage
VESSEL BCompute + storage
VESSEL CMaintenance mode
VESSEL DReserve capacity
↳ WORKLOADS REBALANCE AUTOMATICALLY
Recoverable by design
Whole vessels return to port for major maintenance and hardware refreshes.
Cooling by the sea
Closed internal loops reject heat through marine heat exchangers—without freshwater.
Failure is expected
Checkpointed jobs, replicated storage and reserve capacity absorb a vessel outage.
Built in shipyards
A repeatable platform replaces bespoke construction at every expansion site.
03 The vessel
Concept unit / Gen 01
A data center
that can move.
The first commercial platform is a grid-connected, remotely operated vessel. Solar supports auxiliary loads; dense AI compute relies on contracted grid and renewable power.
IT CAPACITY5–10 MW
TARGET PUE≤ 1.12
COOLINGDirect liquid
CONNECTIVITY2× 400G+
REFRESH CYCLE3–5 years
ONBOARD CREWNone
SYSTEM CUTAWAY NOT TO SCALE
01Solar auxiliary deckControls + hotel loads
02High-density computeGPU racks + fabric
03Cooling plantClosed loop + exchangers
04Power + stabilityUPS · switchgear · ballast
04 Business model
Sell capacity.
Own the platform.
Start as an infrastructure operator. Let anchor customers supply the GPUs; add managed compute only after the marine platform is proven.
Reserved AI capacity
Dedicated modules under 5–10 year take-or-pay contracts.
Offshore colocation
Power, cooling, physical isolation and network for customer hardware.
Managed bare metal
Operated clusters for sovereign AI, simulation and media workloads.
Platform licensing
Design, software and operating model for other coastal markets.
10 MW ILLUSTRATIVE CAMPUS
Designed for infrastructure-grade returns.
Planning assumptions only—not supplier quotes or an investment offer.
Contracted utilization80%
Capacity fee€250/kW/mo
Capacity revenue€24M/yr
Target infrastructure CAPEX<€130M
05 Route to water
Prove small.
Scale by fleet.
The company earns the right to scale at every gate.
Design & qualify
Site screening, authority consultations, customer LOIs and pressure prototype.
€1.5–2.5MDemonstrate
Build and deploy a 100–250 kW unit in sheltered Romanian waters.
€5–8MCommercial pilot
Operate, recover, redeploy and commission the first contracted 2 MW.
€25–40MFleet expansion
Standardize 5–10 MW vessels and establish an offshore availability zone.
Project finance06 What it takes
Hard tech.
Real constraints.
The moat is the approved, insurable operating system around the vessel.
01 Site & permits +
Maritime spatial compatibility, seabed rights, EIA, navigation safety, cable routes, grid connection, protected-area review and security coordination.
02 Marine engineering +
Naval architecture, corrosion and biofouling protection, thermal modelling, mooring, cable protection, ROV inspection and tow-to-port recovery.
03 Digital infrastructure +
Liquid-cooled compute, two independent fiber routes, encryption, checkpointing, erasure-coded storage and onshore workload replication.
04 Commercial bankability +
A 60–70% take-or-pay anchor contract, renewable PPA, classification, environmental monitoring, marine insurance and independently verified operating data.
07 Evidence base
Grounded in
what is proven.
Concept targets and financial figures remain planning assumptions until engineering studies and vendor quotations are complete.
The next availability zone
Build beyond
the shoreline.
Seeking marine engineering, energy, connectivity and anchor-customer partners for the Black Sea demonstrator.
View the project ↗