As the race to build artificial intelligence accelerates, data centers are springing up worldwide, sparking backlash from Ireland to Mexico over blackouts, water shortages, and secrecy, the New York Times reports. More than half the world's 1,244 largest data centers now operate outside the United States, with hundreds more planned by tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. These facilities demand vast resources, drawing criticism for straining electricity grids and depleting water supplies in countries from South Africa to Chile. But tech firms deny responsibility and cite unreliable infrastructure as the root cause.
Globally, governments have courted data center investment with tax breaks and minimal regulation. Projects are often shrouded in secrecy through subsidiaries and nondisclosure agreements. A Mexican official said one such NDA meant information was kept from local communities and the electricity utility. Yet the International Energy Agency warns that, by 2035, data centers could consume as much electricity as all of India. A single site can use more than 500,000 gallons of water a day. Tech companies have promised steps to reduce their environmental impact, but skepticism remains high as construction booms and new sites march forward.
Officials have begun limiting new projects in Ireland, where data centers already consume more than a fifth of the nation's electricity, with activists and residents citing threats to the power grid and questioning whether promised economic benefits outweigh the costs. Similar resistance has surfaced in Mexico, where Microsoft's new complex coincided with water shortages and blackouts in nearby towns. Still, there's a plan in Mexico to quadruple total electricity use from data centers over the next five years to an amount equal to that used to power 1.25 million US homes. Last year, the US Department of Energy estimated data centers could eat up 12% of total US electricity production by 2028, per Vox.
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