Public fear about data centers draining local water supplies is largely misplaced. New facilities using closed-loop cooling technology have minimal water consumption. For example, the massive Stargate campus in Abilene is projected to use less water in a year than a McDonald's restaurant.

Public outrage over data center water usage is fueled by large, decontextualized numbers. In reality, total U.S. data center water use is a fraction of that used for golf courses, almond farming, or even water lost annually to leaky pipes, revealing a major perception vs. reality gap.

The narrative that AI data centers deplete water and raise electricity prices is largely false. They often use less water than a golf course and, by building their own power, can fund grid upgrades and sell excess energy back, lowering local electricity costs and boosting tax revenues.

Counterintuitively, data centers in arid regions like Arizona can be a net positive. They generate up to 50 times more tax revenue per gallon of water used than industries like golf, making them a highly efficient economic replacement.

Contrary to the negative public narrative, the newest generation of data centers are not just resource drains. Built by tech companies, not real estate firms, they are designed to be efficient, with some even contributing power back to the grid and using minimal water, while also preparing for future chip technologies.

Governor Hochul's ban on data centers cites impacts on land, water, and noise. However, modern facilities are highly land-efficient, use closed-loop water systems with minimal consumption (equal to 2.5 In-N-Outs), and can generate their own power, making the official justifications largely a pretext.

Meta is addressing environmental concerns by committing to be "water positive" by 2030. This means their data centers will restore more water to local watersheds than they use, setting a new sustainability standard.

In water-stressed regions, data centers face a critical trade-off: use more water to cool efficiently, or use more power to conserve water. In the U.S., the priority is increasingly on minimizing water usage, which can lead to higher power consumption, as new water sources are considered more expensive to find than power.

Contrary to public perception, modern liquid cooling does not waste water. It uses a sealed, closed-loop glycol system that rejects heat through giant external radiators, much like a car. A massive data center's water usage for this system is minimal, comparable to that of a single family home.