--- title: "Microsoft Is Draining Arizona’s Water for its AI" description: "A Microsoft data center in Goodyear, Arizona is guzzling the desert town's water to support cloud computing and AI efforts." date: "2024-03-02" modified: "2024-03-02" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/microsoft-arizona-water-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "environment" - "the digest" - "water supply" --- # Microsoft Is Draining Arizona’s Water for its AI ![A Microsoft data center in Goodyear, Arizona is guzzling the desert town's water to support cloud computing and AI efforts.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Water Cooler A massive Microsoft data center in Goodyear, Arizona is guzzling the desert's water to support its cloud computing and AI efforts, [*The Atlantic* reports](). A source familiar with Microsoft's Goodyear facility told the *Atlantic* that it was specifically designed for use by Microsoft and the heavily Micosoft-funded OpenAI. In response to this allegation, both companies declined to comment. Powering AI demands an incredible amount of energy. Worsening AI's massive environmental footprint is the fact that it also consumes a mind-boggling amount of water. AI pulls enough electricity from data centers that they risk overheating, so to mitigate that risk, engineers use water to cool the servers back down. According to the *Atlantic*, Microsoft has been incredibly shady about its Goodyear center's water use, even redacting exact figures in city records on grounds that its water consumption is "proprietary" information. But in estimates commissioned by Microsoft itself, the 279-acre campus, which currently houses two buildings and is on track to host a third, would consume an annual 56 million gallons of drinking water once the final building is completed. To put that in perspective? Per the *Atlantic*, that's approximately the amount that a total of 670 Goodyear families would consume in a year combined. And though that's a lot of water anywhere, it's especially material in a place like southern Arizona's Sonoran Desert, where a drying Colorado River and property development loopholes have led to an increasingly dire water crisis. ## Priority Planning Per the report, the Goodyear facility was first announced back in 2019, soon after Microsoft had put its first $1 billion into the then-less-publicly-known OpenAI. To be clear, Microsoft's facility isn't going to make any Goodyear households go thirsty. Goodyear is an incorporated part of the Phoenix area, and in an email, the city assured *Futurism* that Microsoft's water use is protected under industrial water rights and "does not impact the city's water portfolio." A city spokesperson also pointed out that Microsoft uses air to cool its data center when temperatures are below 85 degrees, though as the *Atlantic* noted, [area temperatures tend to surpass 85 degrees]() more days than not. And to that end, as the *Atlantic* report suggests, diverting water away from families — or, you know, just leaving it where it is for Arizonans of the future! — so that ChatGPT can spit out shopping lists in the style of William Shakespeare is certainly a *choice*, and one that comes with an implied cost. "We're going to have to make tough choices in the near future to make sure our state is protected for future generations," Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes told the *Atlantic*. "Allowing one more data center to come to our state is an easy but stupid decision in a lot of cases." This is one of Microsoft's many data centers worldwide. And again, data centers anywhere, [particularly those fueling AI efforts](), are resource-heavy. But as the Sonoran Desert only gets hotter, that this facility continues to power forward paints an especially striking picture of where the AI industry's priorities seem to lie. *Updated to properly indicate area water rights.* **More on AI thirst:** *[Critics Furious Microsoft Is Training AI by Sucking Up Water During Drought]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()