AI data centers require large amounts of water to keep their servers at an adequate temperature, which is especially worrisome in places like Arizona where drought has hampered supplies for years. To try to solve the problem, some companies are betting on cooling systems that rarely need water, but there is one detail that is often overlooked: The electricity used by these facilities also requires large amounts of this resource..
According to a Bloomberg report, University of Michigan researchers calculated that three large data centers planned in the state could add about 53 billion liters of indirect water consumption annually. about it An expense that mainly occurs in power plantsWhere water is used to generate steam and cool equipment, and some data centers dedicated to AI can consume up to ten times more electricity than conventional facilities.
To get an idea of the scale of the problem, META has announced a consumption of about 80 billion liters of water in 2024, of which about 96% is related to indirect use related to electricity. The figure included in its sustainability report represents an increase of around 120% compared to 2021, numbers that reflect the impact and the need for such cost controls.
Less water consumption in a data center does not always mean more savings
In Arizona, where many data centers are centered around Phoenix, companies are turning to systems that cool servers with air. In this way they manage to reduce the water used directly in their facilities, although there is a counterpart, since These devices require more electricity to run. And that can increase costs in power plants.
A 2025 study involving Kerry Hickenbottom, a researcher at the University of Arizona, estimated that some air-cooled systems in the Phoenix area could generate 2.5 times more indirect water consumption than water-cooled systems. Meanwhile, Microsoft confirms that it is The new liquid cooling design will save around 125 million liters annually per installation
The problem is that it is still difficult to know the true cost of all this infrastructure. Google admits that it does not publish its indirect water figures, while Amazon notes that there is no common method for their calculations. For now, companies continue to use different criteria to measure this cost, making it difficult to know how much water is needed to grow artificial intelligence.
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