Data centres are not really popular globally, people around the world are concerned about how much water and electricity such facilities consume. But Amazon wants you to know how its data centres are some of the most efficient. The company has revealed that its global data-centre operations used about 2.5 billion gallons, or more than 9 billion litres, of water in 2025.
This marks the first time Amazon has publicly disclosed this figure. While 2.5 billion gallons of water appears to be a large figure, Amazon claims that the water use at sites it owns and operates directly fell 2 per cent from 2024 levels even as it expanded its data-centre footprint.
Amazon shared the figures in a blog post at a time when data centre operators face growing scrutiny over the environmental impact of AI. Seattle recently also enacted a one-year data centre moratorium that some Amazon employees had pushed for.
Amazon even shared a chart in a blog post that compared its water use figures to rivals. As per the chart, Amazon’s data centres used 0.12 litres of water per kilowatt-hour of electricity in 2025, the lowest when compared to the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Meta.
Though keep in mind that Amazon’s figures are for the company’s entire operations. On the other hand, Google’s numbers shown in the chart are said to only focus on water consumption of Gemini AI data centres. AI data centres usually consume more water due to high-end GPUs. As per reports, Amazon’s water consumption numbers also do not account for water used for construction of new data centres or the water used by power plants that supply electricity to its data centres.
As per reports, Amazon has around 924 data centres globally. A leaked 2022 memo projected Amazon’s data centres would use 7.7 billion gallons of water a year by 2030. Though the company did not address such reports.
Keep in mind that public opinion is going against data centres. A Reuters poll that ended on June 8 found that one in three Americans approved of data-centre construction, but only 14 per cent said they would be comfortable with one being built near them.
Meanwhile, the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health says that the water footprint of datacentres could reach 9.3 trillion litres by 2030. This would be enough to meet the annual domestic water needs of all 1.3 billion residents of sub-Saharan Africa.
Though according to Amazon, the water used by its data centres is far lower than water used in gardens by Americans every year. The company says that Americans use roughly 3.3 trillion gallons of water a year on lawns and gardens, which it said was more than 1,300 times the amount used by its data centres.
Amazon explained that it plans to become water positive by 2030, meaning that for every gallon of water used in its direct data-centre operations, it will return more than a gallon to communities. The company said it has already reached 75 per cent of that goal so far.
Some facilities also use treated or reclaimed wastewater instead of drinking water. According to the company, 26 sites now use 100 per cent reclaimed water and 130 more have been contracted globally.
Amazon claims that most of the water it uses is to cool the servers that power its facilities. It said its data centres rely on outside air for cooling about 90 per cent of the time and use water-based evaporative cooling only during the hottest hours of the hottest days of the year.
Amazon’s disclosure comes amid wider demands for transparency around data-centre water use. As per reports, the city of The Dalles in Oregon agreed to release records on Google’s water consumption after a lengthy legal battle, while Utah recently passed the first US law requiring certain new data-centre projects to publicly disclose annual water usage.
Source: India Today