Can tech giants curb AI data centres’ growing thirst for water?

Data centres, the massive facilities powering the internet and artificial intelligence, are facing criticism in the United States for their water and electricity consumption. These energy-intensive warehouses are projected to use 222 billion liters of water for cooling in 2025, potentially tripling to 644 billion liters by 2030 without intervention. However, tech giants like Nvidia claim they can curb the water use problem.

Nvidia's DSX system, a cutting-edge technology for designing and managing AI data centres, claims to almost eliminate water consumption at some facilities through closed-loop cooling. This innovative approach circulates liquid directly through servers and near chips to maintain temperatures above 80°C. While this method reduces water consumption, it comes at a cost.

To maintain the required temperatures, Nvidia raises the liquid's temperature to 45°C, avoiding the need for constant cooling via air circulation. Nonetheless, this method still requires energy to maintain the liquid's temperature.

Other tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Meta also employ closed-loop cooling systems, which they assert do not result in any net water loss. Microsoft and AWS saw a 25% and 37% improvement in water-use efficiency, respectively, as they expanded their data centre operations. However, these improvements are challenging to compare due to the lack of a standardized industry reporting system for environmental, social, and governance efforts.

Water is generally cheaper than electricity, making companies less inclined to invest in water-saving measures. However, there are incentives for reducing water usage, primarily driven by public relations efforts as opposition to data centres grows in the United States. Upgrading older data centres with newer water-efficient technology is also costly, with older facilities requiring less cooling to begin with.

Yet, indirect water usage, required for generating electricity and producing chips and servers, can be twice as high as direct consumption in the United States.