Can liquid cooling help data centres avoid water wars?

Thanks to the AI boom, we need to build new data centres. But we also need better ways to cool them, says Nicole Kobie

As the hillsides surrounding LA burned, reports emerged of firefighters running out of water to douse the flames. In response, California lawmakers introduced bills designed to force data centres to publish how much water they use and work towards using less – but two weeks later, President Trump was promising to go big on data centres to power the AI boom, with $500 billion pledged to make it happen. The Labour government has promised something similar here in the UK, in the hope AI will boost the economy. Can we build the next generation of data centres without dooming ourselves to water shortages, or even water wars? It’s possible – and may even be technically necessary. Data centres already use as much as 2% of global electricity, on a par…

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