The concept of using compute waste heat, pioneered by a Bitcoin-mining-heated bathhouse, is now central to AI. New cooling systems are being designed not just to vent heat, but to process it as an energy asset for heat reuse or electricity generation.

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.

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.

To counter concerns about water consumption, Meta proactively chose a more expensive, highly efficient cooling system for its Louisiana data center. This decision resulted in the facility using less water than the agricultural operations on the same land previously, neutralizing a common environmental criticism.

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.

Scaling AI on Earth is limited by our atmosphere's capacity to absorb heat and the massive amount of fresh water needed for cooling. Moving data centers to space offers an elegant solution: an infinitely cold vacuum for heat dissipation and direct solar power, removing major environmental and resource bottlenecks for AI's growth.