US data centers average 16K gallons of water a day vs 100K for a golf facility
lmoroney · x · 2026-10-28
On the data-center water debate, the author puts national averages side by side: mapped US data-center sites use about 16,000 gallons of water per day versus roughly 100,000 for the average golf facility. Even across dry states, golf still uses far more water in total — even counting the handful of hyperscale campuses that run much wetter than average. A counterintuitive quantitative reference for the "is AI water-hungry" discussion.
Related event: Data Centers Use Far Less Water Than Golf Courses, Analysis Shows(2 posts)→
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