Samsung Advances Floating AI Data Centre Units With Texas Developer
Data Center Knowledge reported that Samsung Heavy Industries signed an engineering agreement with Texas-based Mousterian Corporation for moored floating data centre units aimed at AI workloads. The plan centres on 50 MW units, initial Texas deployments and a reported commercialisation target in the second quarter of 2028, while customers, sites and firm orders remain undisclosed.
Samsung Heavy Industries has moved its floating data centre plan from concept toward engineering work, giving AI infrastructure developers another option as land, grid access and cooling constraints shape where large compute sites can be built.
Data Center Knowledge reported that Samsung Heavy Industries and Texas infrastructure developer Mousterian Corporation entered the engineering phase for the project.
The companies plan to complete basic and production engineering for purpose-built, moored floating data centre units designed for AI workloads.
Each planned unit would provide 50 MW of critical IT capacity, with initial deployments expected in Texas.
The agreement follows Samsung Heavy Industries' presentation of the concept at the Posidonia 2026 exhibition in June, where the shipbuilder positioned floating facilities as an alternative for markets where conventional sites face limits on land, power or water.
Samsung Uses Shipyard Model For AI Capacity
The engineering phase is significant because it tests whether shipyard-style fabrication can shorten the path from design to usable compute capacity.
Mousterian chief executive Min Suh said the contract moves the partnership from planning to execution and creates a route to expand prefabricated IT capacity for AI facilities.
Suh also told Data Center Knowledge that building to shipyard standards could allow fabrication to proceed while site work happens separately.
He said floating units could be deployed near existing baseload power that may be difficult for land-based developments to access.
Samsung Heavy Industries vice-chairman and chief executive Sung-an Choi linked the project to the company's offshore engineering and shipbuilding background.
Data Center Knowledge also named Capital Clean Energy Carriers and Lloyd's Register as other partners in the initiative.
The design case rests on more than moving server halls onto water. supporters see floating facilities as a way to place compute near existing power generation, use surrounding water for heat rejection and avoid potable-water consumption through non-evaporative cooling.
Samsung Heavy Industries also said the platform can handle liquid-cooled AI equipment and should make less noise than standard land-based facilities.
Other Floating Data Centre Projects Are Emerging
Samsung's plan sits within a wider set of maritime data centre experiments.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines partnered with Kinetics in 2025 on an integrated floating data centre platform, and MOL announced a separate Hitachi partnership in April 2026 that targeted commercial deployment from 2027.
Commercial Target Depends On Sites And Buyers
The Seoul Economic Daily, cited by Data Center Knowledge, said Samsung Heavy Industries is aiming to commercialise the platform by the second quarter of 2028.
That timeline gives the project a clearer market window than many early-stage data centre concepts, but it still leaves several operational questions unresolved.
Floating data centres could appeal to AI infrastructure developers trying to pair capacity with power and cooling resources without waiting for every element of a land-based campus.
The project remains an engineering and deployment model, not proof that customers have committed to use the units.
Samsung Heavy Industries and Mousterian have not disclosed specific Texas sites, customers, order volumes or signed deployment commitments for the floating units.
