From PC Mag: For the first time, Amazon is disclosing that its data centers used a staggering 2.5 billion gallons of water globally last year, but the tech giant is spinning its water use as a win.
In a blog post, the company says its data centers are “7x more water-efficient than the industry average.” It emphasizes efforts to use less water for cooling, as AI data centers face growing scrutiny over their environmental impacts and the strain they place on neighboring communities.
A leaked memo from 2022 projected Amazon’s data centers would use 7.7 billion gallons of water a year by 2030. In October, The Guardian reported that Amazon had been strategizing about how to keep the public in the dark about the water usage, which reached 10.5 billion gallons in 2021, or “more than 95,000 US households.”
In November, SourceMaterial also reported that Amazon had 924 data centers worldwide, a figure that's bound to grow as it builds new data centers focused on AI training and services.
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