Less water, more energy: The AI data center cooling dilemma
According to CNBC Television, cooling artificial intelligence chips requires a lot of water or a lot of electricity, and local pressure against the projects is growing in the US.
BY THE X-TRADER NEWS NEWSROOM · REPORTING FROM CNBC TELEVISION · 3 MIN
Cooling the chips that power artificial intelligence currently requires a large amount of water or electricity, and the less water a data center consumes, the more energy it needs. The conclusion is from a report by CNBC Television, which visited facilities in the United States and listened to researchers on the topic.
The dilemma fuels a growing backlash in American communities. According to the report, 71% of respondents said they oppose the construction of a data center in their region, and local and state leaders have suspended new projects. The video description states that voters approved 40 measures limiting these developments. Residents complain about the increase in water and electricity tariffs.
The largest data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the use of a city of up to 50,000 inhabitants, according to CNBC. For a 1 gigawatt site, like Meta's in Lebanon, Indiana, the peak reaches 8 million gallons. The report recalls that there are more than 2,000 new data centers planned, in addition to almost 1,400 in operation.
Where water is actually used
Inside the servers, the liquid cooling circuit is closed: once full, it no longer consumes water. Systems like Nvidia's Grace Blackwell and AMD's Helios are designed for all-liquid cooling. Water is around 3,000 times more effective than air at removing heat, which allows for a greater density of chips in the same space.
Consumption appears in the next stage, when heat needs to be expelled from the building. According to the report, large companies usually announce zero water consumption for much of the year without taking this phase into account. Dry cooling, with fans, uses little water, but requires air conditioning units on hot days, which puts pressure on the power grid in summer. Evaporative is the most water intensive. Hybrid methods attempt to balance the two.
Company numbers
Equinix, which rents space to clients such as startup Alembic, reported that its global operations consumed 1.2 billion gallons in 2025, an increase of 10% over 2024. In Memphis, SpaceXAI's Colossus complex is authorized for up to 1.28 million gallons per day and, according to reports cited by CNBC, uses an average of 800,000. The treatment plant promised by Elon Musk to recycle municipal sewage has stopped working.
In the market, CoolIT, a supplier of liquid cooling equipment for Nvidia and AMD, was acquired by Ecolab for US$4.75 billion in July. According to the report, new data centers will account for most of the projected increase in demand for electricity in the next decade, and big techs build their own plants, which also consume water.
Chips that heat up less
The output under study goes through cooler processors. South Korean DeepX claims that its low-power chip does not melt butter in a test, and SK Hynix develops memory that, according to the company, reduces thermal resistance by 30%. CoolIT works to bring the liquid even closer to the chip. For Equinix, "rightly" communities question the sector, but data centers fulfill a critical function for modern society.
Automatically translated from Portuguese.
