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Story says they're power limited. That's half-true. Actually they're water-limited. To generate power, you need water. To cool chips, you need water. If you try
by 0xbadcafebee 2mo ago
Story says they're power limited. That's half-true. Actually they're water-limited. To generate power, you need water. To cool chips, you need water. If you try to use less water on one side, you need more water on the other side (it's physics ya'll, making and using energy generates heat which requires dissipation). The world's freshwater is diminishing while also being consumed at an alarming rate. The future AI oligarchs are whoever controls the most water.
The other side of the conversation is the idea that large models in DCs on custom silicon is the future. Maybe for enterprise? But consumers will eventually (10 yrs) have affordable hardware designed to run crazy-good local models (more RAM + higher bandwidth). That will take pressure off of datacenters, but also reduce AI profits, and move that money to consumer chip/device makers. Apple is once again the biggest winner. Nvidia consumer chips might get cheaper, but nerfed, to encourage datacenter use where they make more money. I'm hoping AMD can stop being terrible at software so that when we finally have their better hardware we can actually use it.
- minimaltom 2mo agoFor datacenters specifically I've never understood what specifically consumes the water. Arent the water-cooling loops closed, so the water just cycles around and around and around?
- justincormack 2mo agoYes they are for water cooling.
- SirMaster 2mo agoThey evaporate the water which is what makes it cool so effeciently.
- Ductapemaster 2mo agoEvaporative cooling does not necessitate an open loop system
- Eisenstein 2mo agoThe system which runs coolant over the chips can be closed but the part which uses an evaporative system to cool that is still open loop and vents water into the air, no?
- Ductapemaster 2mo agoNope, it doesn't have to be open loop! Example of such a system being used specifically for datacenters: https://blog.vantage-dc.com/2026/04/22/cooling-without-the-drain-how-closed-loop-systems-cut-day-to-day-water-use/ https://blog.vantage-dc.com/2026/04/22/cooling-without-the-d... Evaporated water is condensed, and in the process transfers its heat into another place that removes it. Another simple example is a pot of boiling water with a lid on it.
- Eisenstein 2mo agoThe link you cited is not evaporative cooling and a pot of boiling water with a sealed lid on it is a pressure vessel which eventually explodes.
- Ductapemaster 2mo agoIf you were to remove the heat at a sufficient rate by, say, turning the lid into a heat exchanger, you would have a stable system.
- Eisenstein 2mo agoHow is that different from not using evaporative cooling and just putting the heat exchanger on the burner?
- Ductapemaster 2mo agoWater is being used to get heat from one place to another. The idea is being able to separate the heat generation and the heat extraction
- 0xbadcafebee 2mo agoAt the datacenter side, it depends on the method of cooling. You can chill the air or the chips directly (or both), doesn't matter, you still need to cool, and that still needs water. The question is, where is the water being used? - If they use either evaporative cooling or a liquid-cooled heat exchanger, that uses tons of water consistently. This requires less energy (it's mostly passive) so you use more water. - If they use closed-loop water cooling and/or heat pumps/electric chillers, that uses much less water - at the DC. But it does require more energy to circulate the water, run fans, etc. If you are using more energy, where is the energy coming from? It's coming from power plants, which require... you guessed it... more water (e.g. thermoelectric, hydroelectric, geothermal, concentrated solar). They need water in order to generate the power, and lots of it. Coal, natural gas, nuclear, and concentrated solar, all use steam to generate energy. Nuclear also uses water to cool the reactor. And water is used extensively to extract coal, oil, and natural gas. Geothermal uses water in the ground. You can't not use a ton of water in one fashion or another. It just depends what method, and on what end the water is used. And the crazy thing is, most new datacenters are being built in places with extremely little water. Guess how that's gonna work out as the planet gets hotter? I don't know why I got downvoted to hell for stating facts every datacenter architect knows. HN be HN'in.
- WarmWash 2mo agoThis only makes sense if you never looked at comparative water usage rates and available water.