Environment & Energy

Peter Thiel Leads $140 Million Capital Raise for Panthalassa to Power AI Computing Using Ocean Waves
Mark Segal May 5, 2026

Clean energy and ocean technology company Panthalassa announced that it has raised $140 million in a Series B funding round led by Paypal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, with proceeds from the financing aimed at advancing its technology to power AI computing using zero emissions energy generated by ocean waves.

According to Panthalassa, the new financing comes as terrestrial data centers face mounting constraints with surging demand for electricity and computing, including limited grid capacity, cooling water scarcity, supply chain bottlenecks, permitting delays, and impacts on local communities and infrastructure.

Thiel said:

“The future demands more compute than we can imagine. Extra-terrestrial solutions are no longer science fiction. Panthalassa has opened the ocean frontier.”

Founded in 2016, Portland, Oregon-based Panthalassa has developed technology to power AI computing using ocean waves. The company’s produces nodes that capture wave energy and use it to generate clean electricity and run AI computing onboard, with data transmitted by low-Earth-orbit satellites. The nodes operate in the distant ocean and use the energy directly onboard to power AI chips, rather than transmitting the energy back to terrestrial grids. The location of the nodes also solves a key challenge for AI infrastructure, with the surrounding ocean provides free supercooling as well.

Garth Sheldon-Coulson, Co-Founder and CEO of Panthalassa, said:

“There are three sources of energy on the planet with tens of terawatts of new capacity potential: solar, nuclear, and the open ocean. 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.”

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