With the limitations of site, power, and cooling for onshore data centers becoming apparent due to the surge in demand for AI infrastructure, global energy management company Schneider Electric and shipbuilding and marine company HD Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering are jointly embarking on the development of offshore-based data center infrastructure technology.

Schneider Electric announced on the 8th that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for the joint development of Floating Data Center (FDC) infrastructure technology.

The signing ceremony took place on the 7th at the HD Hyundai Global R&D Center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, and was attended by key officials from both companies, including Schneider Electric Korea CEO Ji-Woong Kwon and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering CEO Hyung-Kwan Kim.

The two companies are pursuing cooperation across all areas of power, cooling, control, and software with the goal of "integrating data center infrastructure based on offshore platforms."

Schneider Electric plans to provide power management solutions suitable for FDC, cooling systems for high-density AI workloads, and digital-based integrated operations management technology.

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, based on its engineering capabilities in the design and construction of floating structures and the fields of offshore platforms and power ships, is optimized for the marine environmentI am in charge of implementing the Eater Center.

FDC is being considered as a next-generation data center model due to its ability to increase energy efficiency through natural cooling using seawater and to configure large-scale computing infrastructure without onshore site constraints.

The two companies plan to jointly review FDC infrastructure architecture and technical requirements, and together derive solutions suitable for offshore platform environments to secure integrated design capabilities.

In addition, we plan to continuously share FDC-related technology trends and engineering issues, and identify additional joint research and development (R&D) opportunities.

Kim Hyung-kwan, CEO of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, stated, “Through this collaboration, we will advance core technologies capable of stably implementing large-scale, high-density computing infrastructure at sea.”

"We will combine the technological capabilities of both companies to set a new standard for next-generation floating data centers," said Kwon Ji-woong, CEO of Schneider Electric Korea.