Data center uses ~20% of city water, not 100% — dubious math debunked
AndyMasley · x · 2026-11-11
Andy Masley debunks a widely shared claim that an AI data center uses 100% of a city's water: the figure came from multiplying the maximum permitted per-second draw by every second of the year. Actual use looks closer to 20% for a city of 80,000 — comparable to other normal industries and a fraction of regional agriculture, since urban household water is a tiny share of regional use.
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