Sam Altman says fears that AI data centers guzzle water are overblown — but hard to dispel

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said concerns about AI's water usages don't hold up. Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images Sam Altman said concerns about AI water use were overblown but hard to shake. He said an average modern data center uses as much water as a large office building. He also said ChatGPT queries use far less water than it takes to grow a single almond in California. Sam Altman says concern about AI water usage is a "meme" that doesn't actually hold any water. The OpenAI CEO was asked to respond to resistance to AI, including concerns about water consumption, on the premiere episode of the Sources podcast with Alex Heath, published Tuesday. Altman said that while they have a reputation for being water guzzlers, modern data centers use about as much water as an office building. "That has been a robust meme and difficult to disprove, but I don't think holds up to any scrutiny," he said. A 2024 report from a state government commission in Virginia — a hot spot for data centers — found that while some facilities used significantly more water than others, most data centers used the same amount or less than an average large office building. Water consumption has been a central concern i