By Kurt Norval, Senior Search Consultant at Hunter Crown
When people think about artificial intelligence, they picture servers, silicon chips, and massive data centers humming away in remote locations. What almost never comes to mind is water. And yet, water has quietly become one of the most critical resources behind the AI boom.
AI data centers generate a crazy amount of heat. Training large language models and storing petabytes of data all require packed servers operating around the clock. To keep those systems from overheating, data centers rely heavily on cooling, and in most cases that cooling depends on water.
So where does that water come from?
Most data centers draw water from the same sources that communities rely on. Municipal water systems, groundwater aquifers, rivers, or reclaimed wastewater. In traditional evaporative cooling systems, water absorbs heat from the servers and is then released as vapor, meaning much of it is consumed rather than returned to the watershed. A single large data center can use millions of gallons per day! For utilities, this creates a new and sometimes unpredictable demand. High volume, continuous use, and often concentrated in regions already facing water stress.
For water and wastewater professionals, AI data centers represent both a challenge and an opportunity.
On the challenge side, utilities must evaluate capacity, resilience and long-term sustainability. Can existing treatment and distribution systems support a facility that may require millions of gallons per day? How does this demand affect drought planning, peak loading, discharge permitting, and long term capital investment?
On the opportunity side, AI is driving innovation in water reuse, advanced treatment and supply strategies. Many data center operators are actively seeking reclaimed wastewater, industrial reuse loops or alternative cooling technologies to reduce reliance on drinking water. This creates a growing role for wastewater utilities, and firms specializing in water efficiency and reuse. Water is no longer a background utility, it is a strategic partner to the digital economy.
As AI continues to grow, the water and wastewater industry will play a defining role in how responsibly that growth unfolds. Decisions made today about source water, reuse, treatment technology and infrastructure investment will shape not just local systems, but the sustainability of the AI driven world itself.
AI may be powered by electricity and algorithms, but it is sustained by water, managed by the people who understand its value.