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Powering energy-hungry artificial intelligence data centers has sparked heated debate over greenhouse gas emissions. Portland-based startup Panthalassa hopes to offer a solution: floating data centers on the open ocean, powered by clean energy generated from waves.

Just yesterday, Panthalassa unveiled a new factory at the historic Kaiser Shipyard site along the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The facility will manufacture wave-powered devices designed to support those floating data centers. OPB’s Courtney Sherwood attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony to learn more.

Here’s your First Look at Saturday’s news.

— Winston Szeto

Top story

Vancouver gets a factory for floating wave-energy data centers

An Oregon startup that’s raised more than $300 million this year to use wave power to generate energy for artificial intelligence hubs unveiled the Southwest Washington factory yesterday, where it aims to build nodes to power this new kind of renewable energy.

Panthalassa — the company takes its name from the super ocean that took up most of the surface of the planet Earth 190 million years ago — hopes to seed deep oceans around the globe with self-driving buoys and then use that energy to power floating AI computation hubs. The hubs wouldn’t come with the same baggage — carbon emissions, fresh water contamination and neighborhood disruption — that have brought about a backlash against data centers on land.

The investment marks the Portland-based company’s first attempt at moving from custom manufacturing to an assembly line, but while a significant investment in the region, it’s also a test of its theory that it will eventually be able to make and deploy its “nodes” at additional factories around the globe. (Courtney Sherwood)

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3 things to know

1. In her first meeting with reporters since defeating Republican state Sen. Christine Drazan, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said yesterday that her comfortable reelection this week was more than simply a rejection of President Donald Trump. It was, she said, an embrace of her vision for the state. (Dirk VanderHart)
2. In local races for Clark County Council, most voters seemed to want more of the same, with District 1 incumbent Glen Yung and District 2 incumbent Michelle Belkot appearing to have won. (Elena Neale-Sacks)
3. Residents in Morrow County, one of Oregon’s biggest hubs for data center development, raised concerns about future development at city planning commission meetings hosted by county officials and corporate representatives in Irrigon and Boardman this week. (Monica Carrillo-Casas)

Northwest headlines

• New Mariners Hall exhibit to open at Columbia River Maritime Museum (Kristian Foden-Vencil)
• Federal trade officials say a Vancouver-based credit card processor misleads customers into signing costly contracts (Kyra Buckley)
• Lawsuits likely over Washington’s ban on trans girls in sports (Sarah Mizes-Tan, KNKX & KUOW)
• Albertsons must pay $900M for role in Washington opioid crisis, judge rules (Jake Goldstein-Street, Washington State Standard)
• City of Eugene to explore red light cameras in hopes of reducing traffic fatalities (Rebecca Hansen-White, KLCC)
• Washington governor meets with NBA commissioner amid expansion doubts (Jake Goldstein-Street, Washington State Standard)
• Luka Doncic scores 53 in another spectacular offensive game, carrying Lakers past Blazers 124-118 (Greg Beacham)

One more look

‘Wildwood’ movie turns real life Portland into stop-motion wonderland

LAIKA Animation Studios’ latest stop-motion film “Wildwood” is widely considered a love letter to the city of Portland and turns its real-life streets and woods into a magical mysterious world through a combination of cutting-edge technology and old-school stop-motion animation.

Known for classic animated films like “Coraline,” “ParaNorman,” and “Kubo and the Two Strings,” the studio, helmed by CEO Travis Knight, spent 16 years developing “Wildwood,” an adaptation of the popular young adult fantasy novel written by The Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy and illustrated by artist Carson Ellis.

The movie is LAIKA’s longest to date with a runtime of 2 hours and 12 minutes and is the longest stop-motion animated film ever released. (Steven Tonthat)

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/11/07/wave-powered-data-centers-opb-first-look/