Drogue, a six-month-old startup, just scored $20 million from investors like XYZ Venture Capital and Toyota Ventures.
Their big idea? Use the ocean's warm surface water to generate electricity for floating data centers: no pricey land power lines needed.
It's all about finding ways to meet the huge energy demands of AI in AI-friendly timelines.
Drogue revives 1950s OTEC concept
Drogue is revamping an old concept called ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), first developed in the 1950s.
Co-founder and CEO Sam Sipe says they're aiming to have a working prototype at sea within two years.
By keeping data centers on the water instead of on land (which gets super expensive and complicated), Drogue hopes to make powering AI both practical and faster.