Voters rejected AI data centers over power and water, but nobody can easily say how much water each one uses

CNBC reports that voters passed 40 of 41 ballot measures restricting some of the more than 2,000 new data centers planned across the US, with power and water at the top of ratepayers' concerns. UC Riverside researcher Shaolei Ren told CNBC that giant 1-gigawatt AI sites can consume up to 10 million gallons of water a day, but the figure varies with hardware, location and cooling method. CNBC says operators usually report usage companywide rather than per site. Equinix, for example, reported 1.2 billion gallons across its operations in 2025, up 10% from a year earlier.

• If you want to know what a local site uses, ask the operator and your water utility for the permitted daily maximum, not just the company average.
• If you buy cloud or AI services and report on your own footprint, check whether your provider publishes site-level water and power figures.

Source: CNBC. This is our short summary of their reporting. The paragraphs marked "Our read" and the things to do are SeedFoundry's opinion. The summary is drafted with AI tools. Image: Equinix, from its own announcement. How we source and credit