October 5, 2026 — Many Alaskans have opposed proposed data center development in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and on the North Slope. Some residents don’t believe they belong in Cook Inlet, either.
Earlier this year, the East Coast company DeepGreen Cook Inlet released plans for a 100-megawatt subsea data center with as many as 350 underwater turbines and 66 “hives” housing artificial intelligence servers, both powered and cooled by water in Cook Inlet.
Louis Wolfson, a managing member for company DeepGreen and luxury real estate developer based in Needham, Massachusetts, said the proposal seeks to work around some of the constraints facing traditional, land-based data centers: a need for both large plots of developable land and significant amounts of energy from the local grid.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted DeepGreen’s preliminary Cook Inlet permit application on Sept. 1, triggering a two-month public comment period.
While this permit does not authorize construction, it does serve as a small step forward. A preliminary permit, if issued, would give DeepGreen priority to apply for a license while the company studies the site.
A decision on whether or not to issue the permit will be made once the comment period closes and all feedback and other filings are reviewed, said commission spokesperson Ashley Ingebrigtsen.