When it comes to total water use, AI data centers are a drop in the bucket

Amazon reported that its data centers withdrew approximately 2.5 billion gallons of water globally in 2025. This figure, while substantial, represents a small fraction when compared to the 117 trillion gallons of water withdrawn in the U.S. alone in 2015. To contextualize further, Amazon's data center water usage is less than the 3.3 trillion gallons used annually on U.S. lawns and landscaping, the 1.3 trillion gallons used yearly in California almond orchards, and the 531 billion gallons used annually for U.S. golf courses. Amazon's disclosure follows similar reports from other major tech companies. In 2024, Google data centers withdrew over 6.1 billion gallons of water, while Microsoft data centers used approximately 2.75 billion gallons, and Meta data centers consumed about 1.4 billion gallons during the same year. These figures highlight that while individual data centers can impact local water resources, the aggregate water consumption by AI data centers remains relatively low on a national and global scale.