The AI boom is fueling the demand for data centers and, in turn, driving up water consumption. (Water is used to cool the computing equipment inside data centers.) According to FT, in Virginia — home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers — water usage jumped by almost two-thirds between 2019 and 2023, from 1.13 billion gallons to 1.85 billion gallons.
Many say the trend, playing out worldwide, is unsustainable. Microsoft, a major data center operator, says 42% of the water it consumed in 2023 came from “areas with water stress.” Google, which has among the largest data center footprints, said this year that 15% of its freshwater withdrawals came from areas with “high water scarcity.”
Why can’t data centers recycle water in a closed-loop system? Many do, but much of what they consume is set aside for humidity control, meaning it evaporates. Especially in drier regions, air that’s not humidified can become a strong conductor of static electricity, which is usually bad news for computers.
Pakistani startup PostEx is entering Saudi Arabia as first global market after hitting $21 million ARR in the South Asian nation.
The AI boom is fueling the demand for data centers and, in turn, driving up water consumption. (Water is used to cool the computing equipment inside data centers.) According to…
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The flight tracking company says the misconfiguration exposed customer names, addresses, and pilot’s data, as well as Social Security numbers.
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While the rapid pace of funding has slowed, many fintechs are continuing to see growth and expand their teams.
