US communities protest AI data centers over water use concerns

In short: People in several US states are pushing back on new AI data centers, partly because of worries about local water use.

What's going on

Protests are growing in places like Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona as more data centers are built to support AI. A data center is a large building full of computers that run online services, including AI chatbots. These computers get very hot, so many sites use water to help cool them down, a bit like sweating cools your body.

How much water AI uses is hard to pin down. Some claims online say a single chatbot question can take as much as 500 milliliters, about a small bottle of water, but researchers say that number is now outdated. Google said in 2025 that a typical question to its Gemini chatbot used about five drops of water for the computing step.

Zooming out, experts say US data centers used an estimated 66 billion liters of water for cooling in 2023, which was under 1 percent of total US water use. Still, researchers also warn the total could rise sharply as AI use grows. One forecast says that by 2030, US data centers could use 731 billion to 1,125 billion liters of water per year when you include water used to generate electricity, especially from coal and gas power.

What to watch

Where new data centers get built may matter as much as how many get built. Experts say building in water-rich areas and using more solar and wind power can reduce water demand, since those energy sources need little to no water to run. Companies are also shifting to liquid cooling, which cools chips more directly in a closed loop, and can reduce water loss, although extra water may still be needed during extreme heat.

Source: Arstechnica