• 3 min de lectura
• 3 min de lectura
Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (SHI) and Musterian Corporation, Inc. (M3), an infrastructure developer for data centers in aquatic environments, announced the signing of an engineering contract for the first moored floating data center (FDC) in the United States, a priority project driven within the framework of their strategic cooperation. The agreement was formalized at a ceremony held on July 22, 2026.
Under the agreement, M3 and SHI will jointly carry out the basic design, detailed engineering, and production model of purpose-built moored FDC units, each providing 50 megawatts (MW) of critical IT capacity, with deployment planned in Texas and other key U.S. markets.
The program establishes the technical basis for a definitive Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract, which the parties plan to sign upon completion of engineering work or sooner. The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is expected to act as the classification society for the project.
Each facility employs massive non-evaporative liquid cooling, which consumes no potable water and generates no discharge into the surrounding waterway. It also supports high-density, large-scale AI computing, liquid-cooled with very low power usage effectiveness (PUE). By eliminating the chillers and air fans prevalent in conventional data centers, each establishment operates with a minimal noise level, resulting in reduced noise pollution for surrounding communities.
This contract constitutes the first definitive project agreement under the strategic cooperation framework announced by M3 and SHI in April 2026, and allows the collaboration to move from the planning phase to the execution of their priority project. The pilot deployment is designed to demonstrate that purpose-built floating data centers, located adjacent to existing power generation facilities, can significantly reduce lead times for hyperscale and AI computing, by freeing up generation capacity that is beyond the scope of conventional land-based facilities.
Min Suh, CEO of Musterian Corporation, noted that "the signing of this engineering contract transforms our collaboration with Samsung Heavy Industries from mere intent to concrete execution, and offers us a clear path to scale prefabricated critical IT capacity for AI facilities. We are jointly designing the first mission-critical data center of its kind, manufactured off-site to shipyard standards."
"Given that the facility is built in a shipyard, manufacturing proceeds in parallel with land-based works, rather than afterward, allowing for a timeline and scale that conventional delivery methods cannot match. Furthermore, by locating these facilities adjacent to existing maritime and base-load generation infrastructure, we gain energy capacity that land-based development cannot achieve," Min indicated.
Sung-an Choi, Vice President and CEO of Samsung Heavy Industries, commented that "floating data centers are a natural extension of the engineering, manufacturing, and project execution capabilities we have developed over five decades in maritime and offshore construction. Together with Musterian, we aim to deliver floating data centers with the same rigor, quality, and timeliness that characterize our track record in the maritime sector."
Engineering work is based on M3's broader development platform, which encompasses site generation, strategic energy alliances, data center design, capital raising, and tenant relationships, as well as SHI's engineering, manufacturing, and delivery capabilities for large-scale floating maritime assets.
