Peter Thiel Backs Portland Startup Building Ocean Powered AI Systems Off the Oregon Coast

Panthalassa, a Portland, Oregon-based renewable energy and ocean technology company, announced on Monday that it has raised $140 million in Series B financing led by Peter Thiel to manufacture and deploy the first set of autonomous, ocean-powered computing systems for a new class of AI infrastructure.

Funding Sourced For Portland AI Power At Sea To Use Wave-Generated Power

Over the last decade, Panthalassa has developed core power generation, propulsion, autonomy, and at-sea computing technologies, including its Ocean-1, Ocean-2, and Wavehopper prototypes in 2021 and 2024, which demonstrated their capabilities at sea. The company plans to deploy its Ocean-3 pilot node series in the northern Pacific Ocean this year.

But as demand for new electricity and computing surges, land-based data centers face limited grid capacity, scarcity of cooling water, supply chain bottlenecks, permitting delays, and impacts on local communities and infrastructure.

Panthalassa’s sea-based platform relieves grid strain, reduces ecological impacts, and lowers energy costs for families and businesses.

A new round of funding- $140 million- is expected to ensure the completion of Panthalassa’s pilot manufacturing facility near Portland and accelerate deployment of its Ocean-3 series of nodes, which will perform AI inference computing at sea using power generated from ocean waves.

The company’s nodes are mass-produced from plate steel. They are autonomous, floating energy systems that operate in the distant ocean, generating clean electricity around the clock.

Instead of transmitting energy back to land grids, Panthalassa uses it directly on board to power AI chips, sending inference tokens back to land via satellite. Supercooling comes from the surrounding ocean.

The funding comes from:

• Peter Thiel
• New investors include John Doerr, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, Max Levchin’s SciFi Ventures, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, Hanwha Asset Management (USA)’s venture fund, Anthony Pratt, Fortescue Ventures, Future Positive, WTI, Nimble Partners, Super Micro Computer, Sozo Ventures, Dylan Field, Planetary VC, Leblon Capital, Resilience Reserve, Portland Seed Fund, and the Intrepid Oregon Fund.
• Returning investors Founders Fund, Gigascale Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Unless, and WovenEarth.