07/02/2026
Each time you ask an AI chatbot a question, it sends a request to a data center and strains an increasingly scarce resource: water. A Bloomberg investigation in May found that data centers that power AI are increasingly being built in highly water-stressed places. Read more: bloom.bg/4pZaqjm
🗺: Bloomberg analysis of World Resources Institute and DC Byte data
A Bloomberg News analysis finds that roughly two thirds of new data centers built or in development in the US since 2022 are in places with high levels of water stress.