The Ocean Company just closed a $46M raise led by a16z American Dynamism to build permanent ocean infrastructure. Co-founder and President Will O'Brien calls the ocean the last great economic frontier, not a resource to visit and leave, but a domain to inhabit. The company's vehicle, Ulysses, is designed to make that case in steel and capital.
This co-written essay between O'Brien and the author traces the history of ocean development that most technologists have never read, then builds the argument that humanity's relationship with 71 percent of Earth's surface has been extractive and temporary by default, not by necessity. The history section alone is worth the full read.
The a16z backing signals that American Dynamism's thesis is expanding past defense and manufacturing into physical frontier infrastructure. O'Brien's argument is not speculative: it is operational. The essay lays out what the infrastructure stack looks like, who builds it, and why now.
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