How much water do data centres use?

The digital world and artificial intelligence possess an invisible thirst. Data centres are massive electricity users; the IEA estimates they consumed about 415 terawatt-hours in 2024 (1.5 percent of global electricity), a figure expected to more than double by 2030 as AI grows.1source 1

In many large facilities, the immense heat from this electricity is removed by evaporating water in cooling towers, and that evaporated water never returns to the pipe. When the water used by thermal power plants to generate that electricity is added, the toll grows heavier. Researchers estimated that training the GPT-3 model in Microsoft's American data centres could have evaporated about 700,000 litres of clean fresh water on site alone.2source 2 With every answer AI generates, it takes a sip of water from nature.