Water supply may hinder microchip manufacturing

Indiana's effort to attract microchip manufacturing to a 10,000-acre site faces a critical barrier: insufficient water supply. Chip fabrication requires 8–10 gallons per chip, with facilities consuming millions of gallons of ultrapure water daily for cooling and contamination prevention. A proposed Intel site near Columbus, Ohio, may also need to build its own water plants. While focused on semiconductor manufacturing, the water consumption challenges closely parallel those facing data center development.