Episode #41
#41 Thought Leadership | Data Centers on the Ocean Floor, the Job Site, and in Orbit
Where do you put a data center when the grid queue is seven years long and the neighbours are already pushing back? Three founders say: the ocean floor, the job site, and cislunar orbit. In this episode of iMasons' Innovation Exchange, three infrastructure pioneers make the case for AI's next physical frontier: Riley McAdams ( Seabase ) on modular compute pods deployed on the seafloor near ports and cable landing stations — turning warm coastal water into a cooling advantage and sidestepping NIMBY fights entirely. Duhita Kothe ( Crusoe ) on the labor crisis behind hyperscale construction, and how autonomous excavators, robotic welders, and fleet robotics are closing a skilled-labor gap on remote, multi-thousand-person job sites. Chris Stott ( Lonestar Space ) on building the first sovereign data storage network in orbit — from the ISS to cislunar space — with free cooling, uninterrupted solar power, and a legal case for data sovereignty that doesn't exist on Earth. Then all three join a live panel to debate collaboration vs. competition, how you get infrastructure right the first time when you can't just send someone to fix it, environmental impact from synthetic reefs to carbon credits in orbit, and what happens at end-of-life for a data center you can't easily walk away from. If you think you know what a data center looks like, this conversation will change your mind — three times over. Follow iMasons' Innovation Exchange for more conversations on the future of infrastructure.
