Microsoft is in hot water for, well … water abuse — data center water use expected ‘to more than double’ by 2030

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Microsoft’s period of misleading environmental claims appears to be over, similar to what’s happening with many tech companies currently focused on artificial intelligence.

Microsoft previously promised to restore more water than it consumes by 2030. However, a new report in the New York Times indicates the company now expects its water usage to actually *increase* significantly – doubling by 2030 – largely due to the demands of artificial intelligence.

In a 2020 blog post, Microsoft President Brad Smith announced the company’s commitment to restore more water than it consumes by 2030.

Microsoft used to be a leader in addressing its environmental impact, investing in things like green energy credits and projects designed to lower carbon emissions – for example, they supported Climeworks, a large facility in Iceland that directly removes carbon dioxide from the air.

When I spoke with several experts about Microsoft’s environmental promises – many of which were made in 2020, before the pandemic – they were largely doubtful. I’m curious what they would think now, given that Microsoft’s use of electricity and water has significantly increased with the rise of AI.

According to a New York Times report, Microsoft’s internal documents indicate the company expects its water usage to more than triple by 2030, reaching 28 billion liters annually. They used 7.9 billion liters in 2020 and 10.4 billion in 2024.

As a researcher studying data center sustainability, I’ve been looking into the massive water consumption of major cloud providers like Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and Amazon. It’s staggering – we’re talking billions of liters used just to keep their servers cool. These servers run constantly, and that requires not only a huge amount of electricity, but also water to cool down both the servers *and* the systems powering that cooling process. It’s a complex cycle, and it’s a key reason why companies like Microsoft are investigating alternative energy sources like nuclear power. While solar and wind are great, they aren’t always reliable enough to meet the constant demands of AI. Unfortunately, building the necessary nuclear infrastructure will likely take decades.

Microsoft says it’s become more efficient with its water usage, now predicting a 150% increase by 2030, a significant improvement over previous estimates. The company recently introduced the Maia server chip, which was specifically designed to maximize efficiency and further improve these results.

It’s concerning to learn that Microsoft’s growing water needs are likely to affect areas already struggling with drought. Places like Arizona and Texas in the US, the Aragon region of Spain, large data center locations in India, and Indonesia are all experiencing water shortages, yet they also house these major data centers.

While data centers use a small fraction of the world’s total water, Microsoft recognizes that its water consumption can still be significant in areas where water is scarce.

President Trump publicly criticized Microsoft for the effects its data centers have on surrounding towns and cities. In response, Microsoft President Brad Smith announced a five-part plan focused on making the company a more community-focused AI developer.

Because Microsoft quickly abandoned its climate initiatives, many people mocked the company’s promises online.

Recently, Microsoft has faced criticism for aggressively promoting artificial intelligence. Many worry that AI is harming entire industries, despite largely offering improvements similar to a faster search engine. The downsides of AI currently seem to outweigh the advantages, a point even Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, has acknowledged in a recent blog post. Nadella warned that cloud computing companies like Microsoft could lose public trust and support if AI doesn’t deliver clear, positive results soon.

Artificial intelligence hasn’t lived up to the excitement surrounding it. Despite predictions of major advances, we haven’t seen significant scientific discoveries or real improvements in efficiency. Instead, it’s mostly led to the replacement of basic jobs with simple automated tasks, and a surge of low-quality online content and misinformation.

With problems continuing to worsen, Microsoft and other companies developing AI are quickly running out of time to prove the benefits of their technology.

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2026-01-28 03:41