How much water do the data centers use? It’s a secret.


Roanoke gets its drinking water from Carvins Cove Reservoir. The locals tried to find out just how much water Google would be taking. But Google wanted the water and power numbers kept secret.

The details were finally released last week: […] That’s 7.5 million to 30 million litres of drinking water every single day. This is the reservoir’s entire remaining capacity. Google is taking absolutely the limit of all the water they can.

How about the other AI vendors, like OpenAI? […] Notice what Altman did there — he started with the headline claim “water is totally fake” then he gave a made-up example ending with “or whatever.” What he did not give was anything like a number. A current number. […]

Given the secrecy, assume all the hyperscalers use a huge amount of fresh water. Until they give us official numbers somewhere they’re not allowed to lie. They’re not fighting to keep the numbers secret because they’re good.