AI information facilities to drive 11-fold rise in water consumption by 2028: Morgan Stanley

New Delhi

Artificial Intelligence (AI) information facilities are anticipated to considerably improve world water consumption within the coming years, in line with a report by Morgan Stanley.

The report stated annual water use for cooling and electrical energy technology by AI information centres might attain round 1,068 billion litres by 2028.

“AI data centers to drive annual water consumption for cooling and electricity generation to approximately 1,068 billion liters by 2028 (our base case) – an 11x increase from 2024 estimates,” it acknowledged.

The report famous that whereas water use for cooling information centres is broadly acknowledged, the oblique water use by means of electrical energy technology stays underappreciated. AI’s broader water footprint additionally consists of semiconductor manufacturing.

Facilities concerned in semiconductor manufacturing can eat as a lot as 5 million gallons of ultrapure water each day, highlighting the business’s dependence on water-intensive processes.

The report additionally stated water consumption estimates rely upon a number of components, together with assumptions round water depth, consumption components, cooling applied sciences, and regional vitality combine.

As operations undertake extra environment friendly options, these figures might change. To replicate this uncertainty, the report offered three potential situations. Under these, AI’s water use might range between 637 billion litres and 1,485 billion litres yearly by 2028.

The water footprint of AI extends throughout three scopes. Scope 1 pertains to on-site information centre cooling, scope 2 to electrical energy technology, and scope 3 to semiconductor manufacturing.

Electricity technology (scope 2) usually accounts for the biggest share of water use, adopted by cooling (scope 1) and semiconductor manufacturing (scope 3).

Although AI’s total world water consumption could seem modest, the report highlighted that the influence is very localised.

More than half of the main world information centre hubs are located in areas that already face medium dangers linked to water shortage, drought, flooding, and declining water high quality.

Similarly, many secondary markets and rising information centre hubs are situated in areas with excessive or very excessive water stress.

The report burdened that water consumption is a quickly evolving challenge for the AI sector.

It acknowledged “More than half of the world’s top data center hubs are in areas already facing medium basin physical risk (i.e., medium level vulnerability) to threats from drought, flooding, and declining water quality”.

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With the growing demand for cooling and electrical energy technology, managing water sources effectively will stay essential for the business’s progress and sustainability.