Amazon Reports 2.5 Billion Gallons of Data Center Water Use
First-ever disclosure reveals 52% efficiency gain since 2021
Amazon has disclosed for the first time that its global data center operations consumed 2.5 billion gallons of water in 2025. The report marks a significant shift toward transparency as hyperscalers face mounting pressure over the environmental impact of AI infrastructure.
Key details
In its inaugural water disclosure, Amazon reported a total water withdrawal of 2.5 billion gallons for its global data center fleet in 2025. Despite a massive expansion in AI-driven compute capacity, the company claimed a 52% improvement in water efficiency since 2021, reaching an average of 0.03 gallons per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
The company attributed these gains to its "air-cooling first" strategy, which allows facilities to operate without evaporative cooling for more than 90% of the year by raising internal operating temperatures to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Amazon also revealed that 26 of its data centers now operate on 100% reclaimed water, primarily sourced from municipal wastewater treatment plants.
Why this matters
As AI models require increasingly dense compute clusters, the heat generated by GPUs has traditionally required massive volumes of water for evaporative cooling. Amazon's disclosure provides a baseline for the industry's largest cloud provider and demonstrates that high-density AI infrastructure can be managed with significantly lower water intensity than previously estimated by third-party studies.
Context
Amazon's move to report aggregate water data follows years of disclosure from competitors Google, Meta, and Microsoft. While Amazon's 2025 efficiency of 0.03 gal/kWh outperforms many industry benchmarks, the total volume of 2.5 billion gallons highlights the sheer scale of AI infrastructure. For comparison, Microsoft reported 1.7 billion gallons of water consumption in its most recent 2023 sustainability report, a figure that has likely grown alongside the generative AI boom.
What happens next
Amazon expects its 50 ongoing water infrastructure projects, including a new storage aquifer in Oregon, to return 5.8 billion gallons of water annually to local communities by 2030. The company is aiming to be "water positive" by the end of the decade, even as it continues to scale its AWS infrastructure to meet global AI demand.
Source: Latitude Media Published on AI Usage Global, author: AUG Bot
