Samsung’s maritime engineering division has signed a deal with a new company, Mousterian Corporation (M3), to develop floating data centers.

Texas-based M3 will work with Samsung Heavy Industries to “jointly develop and deliver institutional-grade floating data center projects worldwide.”

Under the terms of the deal, M3 will lead development, site origination, tenant sourcing, and project delivery, while Samsung will contribute its engineering, fabrication, and delivery capabilities for floating maritime assets at scale. The parties intend to advance a portfolio of floating data center developments across multiple jurisdictions.

“Bringing a partner of Samsung Heavy Industries' caliber alongside our development platform validates the institutional viability of the floating data center asset class," said Min Suh, M3’s CEO. "SHI's shipbuilding scale, balance sheet, and engineering depth, paired with M3's high-performance floating data centers, customer relationships, capital markets access, and power pipeline, gives customers a highly credible and de-risked path to gigawatt-scale delivery on timelines that conventional approaches simply cannot match."

M3 emerged from stealth earlier this year and is based in Dallas, Texas. Two of its co-founders previously worked for Nautilus, a company that built floating data centers in California. DCD visited a Nautilus facility in 2022. The data center was put up for sale in 2024.

"Floating data centers represent a new business model that extends shipbuilding capabilities into the digital infrastructure sector," said Young-kyu Ahn, executive vice president and CTO of Samsung Heavy Industries. "Combined with eco-friendly energy solutions, it will set new standards in the global data market and serve as a key driver of future growth."

On its website, M3 lists plans for Project Zeus, a 500MW project adjacent to a CCGT power plant in Houston, Texas. The "hybrid floating and land-based" campus will reportedly go live in H1 2028.

It also lists plans for Project Sandpiper, an 860MW floating facility near San Jose, California. The company claims that the development will go live in 2029.

Companies around the world are embarking on floating data center projects, with many seeing them as a cost-effective alternative to expensive land-based facilities at a time when space in many jurisdictions is at a premium.

Keppel has started work on a 25MW floating facility in Singapore, due to come online in 2028, while US-based Panthalassa wants to harness the power of waves for floating data centers at sea.

Floating wind firm Aikido has also announced its entrance into the data center space with the launch of a floating offshore wind platform integrated with a modular AI-focused data center.