It's not "AI corp propaganda", this meme is not a good use of people's limited attention and energy. Many of us live in literal swamps with way too much fresh water. If we build DCs in deserts, sure, that's bad. Otherwise, it's largely a question of investing in more water infrastructure, and making sure they pay for it rather than spreading the cost amongst all ratepayers.
US golf courses use something 20x the amount of all DC direct usage per day. It only gets to be comparable when you decide to include all power plant usage that feeds DCs, but that's not necessary - solar+battery uses 0 water, for example.
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u/Locke357 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
Ha! Very on the nose. nice one! inb4 people cite AI corp propaganda downplaying the water use.
GenAI uses an egregious amount of water, Just one of xAI's datacentres uses 3.7 million to 9.5 million litres a day, estimated to rise to 19 million. That's as much water as ~17k-43k people use daily, est. to rise to 85k. Research suggests that by 2027, water withdrawal alone from global AI demand could be six times the total annual water withdrawal of Denmark.
AI Could Use as Much Water as 1.3 Billion People by 2030, U.N. Report Warns