As Texas stares down another sweltering summer and persistent drought conditions, a new analysis reveals that data centers across the state consumed more than 50 billion gallons of water last year - enough to supply the entire city of Austin for several months.
These massive facilities - used by companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta - rely on enormous amounts of electricity and water to cool servers that store everything from your emails to streaming videos.
While tech companies often tout sustainability efforts, the report shows that most water use happens quietly behind the scenes, often in communities already struggling with water scarcity.
In Central Texas alone, dozens of data centers have popped up near towns like Pflugerville, Hutto, and Round Rock, where local water utilities are under growing pressure. Some centers even use treated drinking water for cooling, prompting critics to question priorities in a state prone to heatwaves, dry reservoirs, and wildfire threats.
Environmental advocates are urging more transparency and calling on state lawmakers to set water-use limits or incentives for alternative cooling methods.
For now, officials say there’s no statewide mandate requiring data centers to report exactly how much water they use - or where it comes from. And as demand for cloud services continues to rise, so will the strain on Texas’s most precious resource.
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