Amazon Discloses Data-Center Water Use for First Time as AI Raises Environmental Concerns

Generative AI is driving rapid expansion in cloud computing and data centers, making the water needed to cool servers a major environmental issue for the technology industry. Even as equipment becomes more water-efficient, additional computing capacity could still increase overall consumption. Amazon’s first disclosure therefore offers greater visibility into the water-resource cost of AI growth.

Amazon said its data centers worldwide consumed 2.5 billion gallons of water in 2025. It claimed its water-use intensity per unit of computing was better than the industry average and lower than that of peers including Microsoft and Google. The report also underscored that efficiency gains may not offset rising overall demand. Water consumption associated with AI computing is expected to climb sharply by 2030 as capacity continues to grow.