Just how thirsty are new mega AI data centers?

Artificial intelligence’s hunger for power (electrical power, that is — at least for now) has raised eyebrows and concerns, but electricity isn’t the only resource AI consumes. The massive data centers required to power today’s advanced AI models are thirsty too.

Case in point: The New York Times recently reviewed water permit applications for some of these new proposed gigawatt-sized data centers, and the amount of H2O they require is eye-watering (pun intended). Current data centers go through about 500,000 gallons of water a day, but the newer, bigger facilities currently in the works will require millions of gallons daily.

In some cases, this is more water than the communities where these centers will be built can provide. Mike Hopkins, executive director of the Newton County Water and Sewerage Authority in Georgia, said he’s seeing applications with requests for up to 6 million gallons of water per day, more than the entire county’s current daily usage.

“What the data centers don’t understand is that they’re taking up the community wealth,” he said. “We just don’t have the water.”