Artificial intelligence companies are planning a massive build-out of data centers — and President Donald Trump has pledged to fast-track energy projects to power the facilities.
But electric power is not the only resource needed to support the flurry of new, large data centers set to come online. Water can also play a crucial role, and some data centers use a lot of it.
While major tech companies have announced plans to reduce the water footprint of upcoming data centers, development could still be constrained in the coming years by dwindling water supplies, according to researchers.
“Places like Arizona and the Phoenix area are among the fastest-growing for data centers and among the most water-stressed,” said Jay Famiglietti, a professor in the school of sustainability at Arizona State University. “We’re on a collision course for maybe a major disappointment about what we can accomplish with our data centers in our physical environment.”
