Tech giants claim new cooling systems could slash data centers' water use

Data centers are facing growing public scrutiny in the United States over their heavy use of water and electricity as artificial-intelligence workloads expand. Global data centers used about 222 billion liters of water for cooling in 2025, and consumption could approach 644 billion liters by 2030 without efficiency measures, according to Rystad Energy. Nvidia says its DSX system can nearly eliminate water use at some facilities by circulating liquid directly around heat-producing chips in a closed loop. The system allows coolant to enter servers at about 45°C, warmer than the roughly 32°C used by many existing systems, reducing the need for chilled air and sometimes allowing simple fans to provide sufficient cooling. Experts caution that cutting water use can increase electricity demand, while extreme heat may still require chilled airflow or evaporative water cooling, leaving data-center operators to balance competing environmental costs.