How To Become A Floating Data Center Billionaire

History's biggest fortunes grew from owning the picks and shovels behind industrial booms.

Rockefeller controlled refining and pipelines. Carnegie controlled steel. Vanderbilt controlled railroads. As these industries grew, more capital flowed through the infrastructure they owned.

A similar pattern is emerging in floating data centers.

Floating Data Centers

A floating data center houses computing infrastructure on a purpose-built barge, typically moored near shore and cooled using seawater. By shifting much of the construction to shipyards, these facilities could be deployed faster than conventional land-based data centers.

In 2026, Singapore's Temasek-backed Keppel began construction of a floating data center backed by a hyperscaler contract.

Shipyards are entering the market. Samsung Heavy Industries is developing a 50 MW barge for the US, while HD Korea Shipbuilding, Seatrium and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines are pursuing their own designs.

As floating data center capacity grows, spending on titanium heat exchangers, marine switchgear, mooring equipment, corrosion protection, subsea connectivity and classification services should grow with it.

Picks and Shovels for Floating Data Centers:

1. Seawater cooling: titanium plate heat exchangers, strainers, seawater pumps, antifouling dosing, CDUs
2. Marine electrical: medium voltage switchgear, transformers, busbars, cable glands, salt rated enclosures
3. Onboard power: LNG gensets, dual fuel engines, fuel handling, battery buffers, shore power connections
4. Mooring and station keeping: chains, winches, hydraulic tensioners, quick release hooks, fenders
5. Corrosion and climate control: coatings, cathodic protection, dehumidification, cable sealing
6. Hull and structure: barge conversion, modular steel decks, watertight bulkheads, float out modules
7. Connectivity: subsea fiber, cable landing stations, satellite backhaul, marine grade networking
8. Classification and testing: type approval, salt spray, vibration, EMC and fire testing, class surveys

These suppliers already generate revenue from offshore wind, naval shipyards, ports, fish farms and coastal power stations. Floating data centers could increase demand for their equipment and engineering services.

Seawater Cooling

The seawater cooling market is highly fragmented. Titanium plate heat exchangers, seawater pumps, automatic strainers, antifouling systems, coolant distribution units and plate servicing are often handled by separate specialist suppliers, even within the same hull program.

Playbook

Start with an established titanium heat exchanger manufacturer, then acquire complementary suppliers:

1. Seawater pump manufacturers
2. Strainer and intake filtration specialists
3. Antifouling and dosing specialists
4. CDU integrators and plate service providers

Each acquisition expands the range of cooling equipment supplied to the same data center projects. A GB200 rack can consume over 100 kW, requiring liquid cooling to remove heat from the processors. That heat must then be transferred from the coolant to the surrounding environment.

Seawater cooling is already used in commercial data centers. Google's Hamina facility in Finland has used seawater since 2011. Microsoft's Project Natick and Highlander's subsea installation in Hainan provide further examples, although their designs differ from barge-based facilities.

Higher rack power densities increase cooling requirements and could support demand for larger or additional heat exchangers. Titanium is widely used in seawater heat exchangers because of its corrosion resistance. Material certifications and marine approvals also make it harder for new suppliers to enter the market.

These systems require regular maintenance. Biofouling reduces heat transfer efficiency and must be controlled through cleaning, flushing and chemical treatment. Exchanger manufacturers can therefore generate additional revenue from replacement plates, gaskets and maintenance contracts over the equipment's operating life.

These systems require regular maintenance. Biofouling reduces heat transfer efficiency and must be controlled through cleaning, flushing and chemical treatment. Exchanger manufacturers can therefore generate additional revenue from replacement plates, gaskets and maintenance contracts over the equipment's operating life.

Playbook

1. Fragmented target universe

• Titanium heat exchangers, seawater pumps, strainers, antifouling systems, CDUs and plate servicing are supplied by separate specialist firms.
• Depending on the cooling design, a hull program may require several specialist suppliers for heat exchangers, pumps, filtration, antifouling equipment and coolant distribution.
• Potential acquisition targets include specialist manufacturers of titanium heat exchangers, seawater pumps, filtration equipment and antifouling systems across Northern Europe. Companies generating €2–10 million in EBITDA could provide suitable entry points for a buy-and-build strategy.
• Class approvals, titanium alloy certifications, reference installations and experienced engineering teams make replacing established suppliers difficult.
• Higher rack densities increase cooling capacity requirements, while seawater systems create additional demand for pumps, filtration and maintenance over the operating life of each hull.

2. Build the platform

• Start with an established titanium heat exchanger manufacturer serving marine, offshore and power generation customers.
• Add seawater pumps, strainers, antifouling systems and CDU integration through acquisitions.
• Keep engineering teams, class approvals and workshops local.
• Combine shipyard sales, titanium procurement and service scheduling across the group.
• Assign application engineers to work with Samsung Heavy Industries, HD KSOE and Seatrium as the first hull specifications are developed in 2026 and 2027.
• Offer complete cooling systems to hull programs that previously sourced individual components from separate suppliers.

3. Integrated cooling platform

• Each additional hull equipped by the platform expands its installed base and creates potential demand for maintenance and replacement parts.
• Shipyards, hull developers and hyperscalers can source a larger share of their cooling equipment from a single supplier.
• Titanium heat exchanger demand grows as rack densities increase from GB200 to Rubin.
• Seawater cooling systems require periodic cleaning, regasketing and chemical treatment. Suppliers with an established equipment base can generate additional revenue from maintenance, replacement parts and servicing throughout the equipment's operating life.
• Additional hulls expand the installed equipment base and create further maintenance and replacement demand.
• A broader product range allows the platform to capture more revenue from each hull program.

This is part of an evolving series on the picks and shovels behind floating compute.

What We're Building at Heorot

At @HeorotGroup we're building a European industrial group focused on the critical infrastructure behind the next generation of computing.

We're developing an acquisition pipeline across seawater cooling, marine engineering and adjacent industrial technologies, with a focus on established businesses that bring specialized capabilities, engineering expertise and long-standing customer relationships.

Our strategy is to bring these businesses together into an integrated industrial platform capable of serving increasingly complex infrastructure projects.

Floating data centers are one part of a much larger opportunity. We see the foundations of a new industrial market taking shape, and Heorot is being built to play a central role in it.