Tech giants including Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and Google are adopting different strategies to address data center water consumption, with some moving away from evaporative cooling entirely while Google takes a more nuanced, site-specific approach backed by hydrological assessments and water replenishment pledges.
<p>On Monday, SpaceX amended its <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-ipo-anthropic-compute-finances-risks/">initial public offering</a> to state that water conditions—including water scarcity, regulations around water, and drought—could constrain data center development.</p>
<p>It isn’t the only tech company trying to assess how water scarcity might impact its business. Water use is emerging as one of the <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/karen-hao-empire-of-ai-water-use-statistics/">most contentious data center issues</a>. A recent Gallup <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx">poll</a> found that seven out of 10 Americans are opposed to data center development, with water scarcity ranking as the top resource concern. Facing increasingly fierce resistance, some tech companies are scrambling to assure the public that they’re facing the issue head-on.</p>
<p>Data centers primarily use water to cool server racks, which throw off massive amounts of heat. One popular technique, known as evaporative cooling, uses fresh water to absorb the heat, which is then pumped to cooling towers where it evaporates outside.</p><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/06/how-data-center-operators-are-tackling-their-water-use-problems/">Read full article</a></p>
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# How some data center operators are tackling their water use problems
Source: [https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/06/how-data-center-operators-are-tackling-their-water-use-problems/](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/06/how-data-center-operators-are-tackling-their-water-use-problems/)
Some tech giants, including Microsoft, OpenAI, and Oracle, have made statements in recent months indicating that they are moving away from evaporative cooling entirely in order to save water\. That includes OpenAI and Oracle’s massive Stargate expansion in a number of states, including a water\-stressed region of Texas\.
Google is taking a different approach\. On Wednesday, the company rolled out a series of water\-related commitments to communities where it has data centers, along with funding announcements for water\-related projects in the US\.
They include pledges to replenish more freshwater than the company consumes, via investments in local water projects; to scale up the use of reclaimed and recycled water; and to disclose annual water use in data centers\. \(Other tech companies, including Microsoft, have similar promises around water replenishment and local investment\. Google has been working on most of these pledges for a few years\.\) There’s also a promise to use “a data\-driven framework” to decide what data center designs would work best with local watersheds\.
Ben Townsend, the global head of infrastructure and sustainability at Google, says that data center design is a lot more complicated than simply swearing off one type of cooling in all cases\. The company, he says, has been doing detailed hydrologic assessments of its sites for the past four years to determine what types of cooling would work best\.
“Water is scarce in some regions and plentiful in others,” he says\. “A one\-size\-fits\-all strategy just doesn’t work\.”
In April, Google[defended](https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/16035-Energy-efficiency-rating-scheme-for-data-centres-in-Europe/F33395555_en)evaporative cooling for areas with what it called “abundant” water in a filing to the European Union as necessary for developing truly sustainable data centers\. Google’s arguments line up with new research from Ren and his team, who found that if all data centers in the US were to adopt some kind of evaporative cooling during peak demand, it could free up an additional 10 to 30 gigawatts of power\. In areas where grids are stressed but water resources aren’t, using evaporative cooling could provide a meaningful headroom to utilities trying to balance load\.
Data center operators are grappling with water scarcity issues, with tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI pledging to reduce water consumption through alternative cooling methods and water replenishment initiatives.
While AI data centers' water use is negligible globally, they can significantly strain local water supplies in specific regions, prompting tech companies like Amazon and Google to improve efficiency and fund water replenishment projects.
This article questions why data centers use fresh water and suggests that coolant water could be recycled and cooled underground, similar to automotive systems, to reduce water consumption.
Google outlines five water stewardship commitments for its data centers, including a goal to replenish more water than it uses by 2030, in response to growing public opposition to the environmental impact of AI infrastructure.
Amazon reported that its global data centers consumed 2.5 billion gallons of water in 2025, a 2% drop from 2024, amid growing concerns over water and energy use for AI infrastructure. The company claims higher efficiency than some rivals like Microsoft, Google, and Meta.