Construction Physics [1] and Hank Green [2] have done good takes. Broadly speaking, most general-use datacenters use evaporative cooling (i.e. open loop) becaus

Construction Physics [1] and Hank Green [2] have done good takes. Broadly speaking, most general-use datacenters use evaporative cooling (i.e. open loop) because it's cheap [3]. AI datacenters reject so much heat, however, that even absent public pressure they pretty much need closed loops [4]. The misconception is that while both of these processes use a lot of water, we both have and use tremendously more. That makes their levels tiny compared with plenty of uncontroversial, thoughtless uses. And the increasing efficiency makes this a choke point across medium-term scaling. (And replacing an AI datacenter with a conventional one counterproductive from a water-conservation perspective.) Power—and with it, noise, air pollution and grid-upgrade costs—is the real and present problem. [1] https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-does-the-us-use-water https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-does-the-us-use-w... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_c6MWk7PQc&t=240s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_c6MWk7PQc&t=240s [3] https://www.fwpcoa.org/content.aspx?page_id=5&club_id=859275&item_id=130961#:~:text=In%20practical%20terms%2C,achievable%20with%20efficient&text=Evaporative%20cooling%20%28open-loop%29%3A,in%20a%20tower. https://www.fwpcoa.org/content.aspx?page_id=5&club_id=859275... [4] https://axis-intelligence.com/data-center-liquid-cooling-statistics/ https://axis-intelligence.com/data-center-liquid-cooling-sta...