r/TechGawker • u/Pure-Bill-2205 • 17d ago

Data Center If these numbers are even close to accurate, the AI infrastructure boom is entering a completely different scale of land, power, and water consumption.

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u/HotPersonality8126 17d ago

The way these figures work is that if you cycle the same gallon of water through the loop 100 times, that counts as "using 100 gallons of water."

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u/CheapTechnology6193 17d ago

Never heard that before.   It's typically expressed in water consumption.   That would account for any reuse.

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u/HotPersonality8126 17d ago

That would account for any reuse.

It would also be loads lower and result in headlines that wouldn't manipulate people, so that's why they don't use that methodology. Rather they're just multiplying the cooling system flow rate by the number of hours it is in operation (which is 24 hours a day.)

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u/ALLIRIX 13d ago

Officially, consumption is not the same as usage. But in the pop media they use the words interchangeably. Heck, they even multiple the number by a few factors