As Texas stares down another sweltering summer and persistent drought conditions, a new analysis reveals that data centers across the state consumed more than 50 billion gallons of water last year – enough to supply the entire city of Austin for several months.
These massive facilities – used by companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta – rely on enormous amounts of electricity and water to cool servers that store everything from your emails to streaming videos.
While tech companies often tout sustainability efforts, the report shows that most water use happens quietly behind the scenes, often in communities already struggling with water scarcity…