An Oregon startup that’s raised more than $300 million this year to use wave power to generate energy for artificial intelligence hubs unveiled the Southwest Washington factory Friday, where it aims to build nodes to power this new kind of renewable energy.
Panthalassa — the company takes its name from the super ocean that took up most of the surface of the planet Earth 190 million years ago — hopes to seed deep oceans around the globe with self-driving buoys and then use that energy to power floating AI computation hubs. The hubs wouldn’t come with the same baggage — carbon emissions, fresh water contamination and neighborhood disruption — that have brought about a backlash against data centers on land.
The investment marks the Portland-based company’s first attempt at moving from custom manufacturing to an assembly line, but while a significant investment in the region, it’s also a test of its theory that it will eventually be able to make and deploy its “nodes” at additional factories around the globe…