Panthalassa raised $140 million in Series B funding to move its ocean-powered AI infrastructure platform from prototypes toward pilot manufacturing and first deployments. Peter Thiel led the round, joined by John Doerr, TIME Ventures, SciFi Ventures, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, Hanwha Group, Fortescue Ventures, Super Micro Computer, Sozo Ventures, Founders Fund, Lowercarbon Capital, and others.
The Portland, Oregon-based company plans to complete a pilot manufacturing facility near Portland and deploy its Ocean-3 node series in the northern Pacific Ocean in 2026. The autonomous floating nodes generate electricity from ocean waves, run AI inference workloads onboard, and transmit tokens back to land by low-Earth-orbit satellite.
Panthalassa argues that offshore compute can avoid several constraints facing land-based data centers, including grid interconnection delays, cooling requirements, water use, land availability, and local permitting. Its platform uses plate-steel nodes designed for coastal factory production, while the surrounding ocean provides direct cooling for onboard AI chips.
- Funding: $140 million Series B
- Lead investor: Peter Thiel
- Use of funds: pilot manufacturing facility and Ocean-3 deployments
- Deployment target: northern Pacific Ocean in 2026
- Commercial deployment target: 2027
- Architecture: autonomous wave-powered nodes with onboard AI inference
- Connectivity: low-Earth-orbit satellite links
- Earlier prototypes: Ocean-1, Ocean-2, and Wavehopper systems tested in 2021 and 2024
“There are three sources of energy on the planet with tens of terawatts of new capacity potential: solar, nuclear, and the open ocean,” said Garth Sheldon-Coulson, Co-Founder and CEO of Panthalassa. “We’ve built a technology platform that operates in the planet’s most energy-dense wave regions, far from shore, and turns that resource into reliable clean power. We’re now ready to build factories, deploy fleets, and provide a sustainable new source of energy for humanity.”Panthalassa, an ambitious startup in the energy sector, is developing technology capable of harvesting power from the ocean’s waves. The company’s platform taps into the planet’s most energy-dense wave regions, producing reliable, clean energy with a ground-breaking process. CEO and Co-founder Garth Sheldon-Coulson revealed plans to scale up production of the technology, boasting the potential of providing a sustainable energy source for the global population.
Sheldon-Coulson identified solar, nuclear and the open ocean as three core areas of energy production that have tens of terawatts of untapped potential. Operating in these regions are expected to increase the availability of clean and renewable energy sources in response to crisis caused by fossil fuels.
In a bid to harness the energy potency of the ocean, Panthalassa’s technology focusses on offshore energy dense zones. Traditional wave energy technologies are typically located closer to shore and generate less energy. By locating their technology further out at sea, Panthalassa may solve the scalability problem that has hindered ocean energy generation for so long.
Sheldon-Coulson indicated the readiness of the company to scale operations and production, with the construction of factories and deployment of fleets on the horizon. The ambitious CEO expressed his vision of providing a sustainable, clean power source for humanity through their disruptive technology, representing a significant shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy.