Key Takeaways

The BlueSea Frontier Compute Cluster (BSFCC) is a floating data center announced on X (formerly Twitter) by Nevada-based research firm Del Complex. A seemingly simple concept that poses more than a few serious challenges, this floating compute cluster will contain over 10,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs on what is effectively a technology-packed barge.

Designed to operate independently in international waters as a sovereign nation-state, the BSFCC contains facilities for onboard cooling, multiple power sources, and residential accommodation for the permanent human presence that Del Complex claims will remain on board. Del Complex may be trying to capitalize on a recent wave of AI advances, with large numbers of powerful GPUs required to train the models now capable of doing everything from writing code to generating convincing photorealistic images. We'll probe into the details of this ambitious idea, and explain why a floating data center might be more practical than you think.

The firm behind his floating behemoth, Del Complex, is an alternative reality corporation that focuses on research in cutting-edge tech spheres, including Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), neural prosthetics, robotics, and clean energy. Del Complex's website states that it's funded through a combination of venture capital and government-backed research grants and operates several facilities across the United States. Its not clear how far the BSFCC project has progressed, whether construction has started, or if funding is secured.

Combatting decelerationism is a key goal of the BSFCC, with the firm openly coming out against a future of AI regulation. Del Complex claims the BSFCC offers sanctuary from ongoing draconian AI regulations and oversight. This comes as President Joe Biden signed an executive order introducing new requirements for AI developers to notify the federal government about potentially dangerous AI tools, as well as sharing the results of red-team safety tests.

Del Complex appears to claim that the BSFCC would be eligible for international statehood, going as far as to list the requirements for statehood under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Montevideo Convention. They claim permanent residents of the BSFCC would be subject to government under a charter, created and amended as a living document by both occupants of the BSFCC and its corporate partners. Its important to note that while the requirements for international statehood might be technically met, this does not mean other nation-states are required to recognize the BSFCC or open relations with them.

By anchoring the BSFCC in international waters Del Complex can, in theory, dodge the direct regulatory reach of nation-states. However, this is only really half the story. The ability of the BSFCC to operate likely needs some degree of shore support the BSFCC does not have a means of providing its own food and drinking water (Del Complex makes no mention of desalination), or internet connectivity. While a satellite connection could be established, its unlikely this could provide the bandwidth required to easily move the large amounts of data required for the AI use cases Del Complex is targeting.

The implication here is then that the BSFCC will need to be anchored relatively close to a country with pro-AI/deregulatory policies, or at least one willing to tolerate Del Complex operating support services from their shores. This would seem to echo Del Complexs security claims about the BSFCC, with security provided by a private contractor, Xio Sky, as well as partner nation states.

Likewise, while nation-states may be unable to bring about regulation on AI companies operating from the BSFCC directly, they could make it difficult for them to trade in their markets, for example by banning domestic companies from trading with them, or by sanctioning the countries supporting this deregulated research. The United States has recently enacted policies like this against China, ordering Nvidia to stop exporting advanced AI chips to China immediately. Similar policies against the BSFCC could make it difficult for them to access the US market, or access U.S.-manufactured hardware and enterprise support. Nvidia has been a market-leader in providing graphics cards for data centers in recent years, capitalizing both on the explosion of cryptocurrencies and AI.

Unsurprisingly, this isnt the first time data center operators have attempted to offshore their resources to escape regulation. A common-lore example is the principality of Sealand, occupied since 1967, 7 miles from the shores of Britain on an abandoned World War II fort. Sealand started as a pirate radio station before declaring sovereignty in 1975. In the early 2000s, Sealand was used as a data center for Havenco, which for three years ran as a server host and data haven with an extremely liberal acceptable use policy.

A floating data center might also be more practical than you think. Microsoft has been successfully testing reliable underwater data centers in Scotlands Orkney Islands. First submerged in 2018, Microsofts Project Natick team submerged 864 servers contained within a capsule filled with an atmosphere of dry nitrogen. The submersible system relied on the surrounding water for heat-exchange cooling and surfaced successfully after two years underwater. Microsoft claims they observed a hardware failure rate of one-eighth of what [they] see on land.

It's already common for data centers to be built near large sources of water for heat-exchange cooling. Port-moored data centers have also been deployed already, with California-based firm Nautilus already operating several shore-powered floating data centers. These rely on onboard pumps to circulate water-agnostic cooling loops to a heat exchanger, which in turn is used to cool a separate loop in the vacuum-sealed data center. This open/closed loop system means no harmful chemicals are required (seawater can be used safely as coolant), and there's no risk of waterborne contamination to the environment.

The BCFCCs onboard combined-cycle power plant will feature two gas turbine generators, a single steam turbine, and roof-mounted solar arrays capable of supplementing the main power system. If Del Complex hits its claimed number of GPUs (10,000 Nvidia H100s), they could be looking at a power bill of several megawatts for GPU power alone, let alone associated cooling and other hardware.

Its implausible that the rooftop solar arrays on the BSFCC could provide even close to the required wattage to run such a large compute cluster (a single megawatt of solar energy typically requires several acres of dense solar array, climate conditions depending.) It seems likely therefore that the solar array is there to provide supplementary, environmentally friendly power while acting as a backup for some core systems. Del Complex also states that a "battery energy storage system" will be on board.

The BSFCC is an ambitious project, and a bold statement in the face of AI regulation, but that's only one side of this story. Ideas around offshoring and energy-efficient data centers are serious research, and submergent cooling might not be as audacious of an idea as it seems. Ultimately, time will tell if the BSFCC ever represents a realistic escape from regulation, or even ever takes to the high seas.

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A large computing cluster at sea might have big implications for AI ... - XDA Developers