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AI data centre boom sparks global backlash over power and water use by tech giants

Countries from Ireland to Mexico face mounting energy and water strain as Google, Microsoft and Amazon expand AI infrastructure with limited transparency

The Google logo on the company’s European headquarters in Dublin. Reuters

Paul Mozur, Adam Satariano, Emiliano Rodríguez Mega
Published 21.10.25, 04:42 AM

The US has been at the nexus of a data centre boom, as OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others invest hundreds of billions to build the giant computing sites in the name of advancing artificial intelligence. But the companies have also exported the construction frenzy abroad, with less scrutiny.

As data centres rise, the sites — which need vast amounts of power for computing and water to cool the computers — have contributed to or exacerbated disruptions not only in Mexico, but in more than a dozen other countries, according to a New York Times examination.

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In Ireland, data centres consume more than 20 per cent of the country’s electricity. In Chile, precious aquifers are in danger of depletion. In South Africa, where blackouts have long been routine, data centres are further taxing the national grid. Similar concerns have surfaced in Brazil, Britain, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and Spain.

The issues have been compounded by a lack of transparency. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other tech companies often work through subsidiaries and service providers to build data centres, masking their presence and revealing little about the resources that the facilities consume.

Tech companies, which are racing to build data centres to power new AI models and create “superintelligence”, or AI with power that exceeds the human brain, said the boom brought jobs and investment. They added that they were working to shrink their environmental footprint by generating their own energy and recycling water.

Microsoft said it had no information that its data centre complex in central Mexico had affected power and water supplies. Electricity is unstable there, the company said. It added that it used minimal water and had an electricity load of up to 12.6 megawatts, which if used throughout the year would be the equivalent of what could power roughly 50,000 homes in Mexico.

“We looked deeply and found no indication that our data centres have contributed to blackouts or water shortages in the region,” said Bowen Wallace, Microsoft corporate vice- president for data centres in the Americas. “We will always prioritise the basic needs of the community.”

Electric grid infrastructure has been problematic in central Mexico and caused blackouts, said Alejandro Sterling, the director of industrial development for the region. “Our capacity has been overdrawn,” he said.

Directly linking any data centre to local power and water shortages is difficult. Yet building in areas with unstable grids and existing water strains has pressured already frail systems, according to experts, increasing the potential for cascading effects.

In country after country, activists, residents and environmental organisations have banded together to oppose data centres. Some have tried blocking the projects, while others have pushed for more oversight and transparency.

In Ireland, authorities have limited new data centres in the Dublin area because of “significant risk” to power supplies. After activists protested in Chile, Google withdrew plans to build a centre that could have depleted water reserves. In the Netherlands, construction was halted on some data centres over environmental concerns.

“Data centres are where environmental and social issues meet,” said Rosi Leonard, an environmentalist with Friends of the Earth Ireland. “You have this narrative that data centres are needed and will make us rich and thriving, but this is a real crisis.”

Horses roam the 150 acres of open fields in the town of Ennis in western Ireland, which a developer began trying to turn into a four-billion-euro data centre for an unnamed tech company five years ago. Environmental groups and locals have filed legal objections and appeals to block the project.

Not long ago, such a plan probably would have sailed through. For two decades, Ireland rolled out the red carpet for tech. Apple, Google, Microsoft and TikTok made the country their European base, and about 120 data centres are clustered around Dublin and dot the countryside beyond. A third of the country’s electricity is expected to go to data centres in the next few years, up from 5 per cent in 2015.

But Ireland’s welcoming mood has soured. The country has become one of the clearest examples of the transnational backlash against data centres. That opposition gained momentum in 2021 when an environmental socialist group, People Before Profit, protested at a data centre conference in Dublin.

Nearly 60 per cent of the 1,244 largest data centres in the world were outside the US as of the end of June, according to an analysis by Synergy Research Group, which studies the industry. More are coming, with at least 575 data centre projects in development globally from companies including Tencent, Meta and Alibaba.

New York Times News Service

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Google Microsoft Amazon
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