Mayors of 40 of the world's biggest cities sign pact to mitigate impact of data centers on grid and water infrastructure

Water usage has been a hot topic in the AI data center world, but the numbers may surprise you.

According to the Manhattan Institute, data centers use 0.2 percent of daily water usage in the U.S. and that number has dramatically decreased in the past few years due to a new… pic.twitter.com/QnlGrLR5ks

— NVIDIA (@nvidia) June 22, 2026

Chevron signed a 20-year deal with Microsoft to provide natural-gas fired power for a proposed West Texas data center, which could be one of the biggest in the US https://t.co/ipQU4mXxeG

— Bloomberg (@business) June 22, 2026

Fear of data centers is outpacing knowledge about them.

Perceptions of massive water consumption and higher electricity prices don't jive with reality.https://t.co/UaBCoJiLNN

— Steve Everley (@saeverley) June 22, 2026

Network connectivity used to be the most important factor in siting data centers. Today, it's proximity to natural gas fields. pic.twitter.com/dFzgKwvb1A

— John Arnold (@johnarnold) June 22, 2026

Genuine answer, and it's not as sinister as it feels.

Data centres cool servers by evaporating water. Every time water evaporates, it leaves its minerals and salt behind.

Dirty or salt water would quickly clog the pipes and corrode the equipment - so they use clean water…

— Plain English Planet (@PlanetPlain) June 22, 2026