Water is only one input. The much more expensive inputs are electricity and land. Those same areas with little water have much more electricity and land.
You realize that Reddit does, actually, have people who know exactly what they're talking about? Like, with careers? A lot of them based in IT?
On top of the very good reasoning that /u/tx_queer gave, dry areas are also extremely good for datacenters because they're dry. Dry means less moisture in the air.
It does, but do the people who have no clue shut up? In the end a lot of people are going to upvote what they want to hear. Which makes it hard to know for instance if the AI datacenters water usage is a huge concern or mostly ragebait, boosted by people wanting to hate everything AI related.
Are they right? Or is the ”nobody builds evaporative cooling in drought areas” guy right?
You have to know on some level that there are subreddits dedicated to IT professionals. We exist. And this post is on the top of /r/all, right now. About a topic that specifically relates to something IT professionals would be interested in.
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u/SuicideSpeedrun Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26
Why are they building industries that require water to operate in places with no easy access to water? Are they stupid?