How AI Demand Is Draining Local Water Supplies

A Bloomberg investigation reveals that about two-thirds of new data centers built since 2022 are located in areas with high water stress, with five US states accounting for 72% of those in the driest regions. The article examines how AI-driven demand is accelerating water consumption — an average 100-megawatt facility uses about 2 million liters per day — while tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google explore alternatives such as closed-loop and immersion cooling. Communities and water advocates are pushing for greater transparency, as almost no individual facility-level water usage data is publicly available, and global data center water consumption could more than double by 2030.