Facts About Data Centers Most People Don't Know

Data centers need cooling. Most require large amounts of water for this. They cool using evaporative systems orThis system uses no evaporation.The former lets water evaporate and escape. Data centers using either system must use freshwater, not saltwater, because saltwater causes metal corrosion, clogs pipes, and cools less well.

Saltwater has high salt, so it degrades metal. This isEngineers face an issue.have seen for a long time. That same corrosion can happen to pipes in a data center.Evaporation happens oftenEvaporation is key to how water cools data centers as it moves through facility pipes. Saltwater leaves salt deposits behind. Finally,Freshwater cools the system.more efficiently, which is another reason to prefer it for data center cooling.

Environmentalists, scientists, and officials worry about the water use of data centers. These centers often build in places lacking access tomuch freshwaterFreshwater is only about 3% of Earth's water, so using it strains water supplies.Miguel Yañez-Barnuevo from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.said:

Large data centers use up to 5 million gallonsThis happens every day.That equals the water use of a town with 10,000 to 50,000 people.

Some data centers recycle water for cooling, but this is hard with evaporative systems. Some centers recapture evaporated water or filter wastewater to cut down on water demand.

Data centers affect people in many ways. They pull much power from current energy setups. Energy costs rise for local people and companies. Local tax bases pay for infrastructure upgrades. Researchers saw that in 2025, energy cost per kilowatt hour jumped 27% since 2019 in the United States. Energy prices rise in areas with many data centers, such as Virginia.Researchers found that in 2025, energy costs per kilowatt hour rose 27% since 2019 in the United States. Energy prices in areas with many data centers, like Virginia, increased 267% in five years.

Also,

High energy bills make life insecure for low-income families and renters. Families struggle to pay for food or medicine, leading to utility shutoffs.

This creates economic problems and changes the quality of life and personal and public health.Economic strain might make people pay less for healthcare because energy costs are rising. Because data centers add greenhouse gases, data centers couldEconomic strain makes people choose cheaper healthcare due to higher energy costs. Data centers add greenhouse gases.Data centers couldData centers cause about 600,000 asthma symptom cases and 1,300 premature deaths. This number beats one-third of U.S. asthma deaths every year. This raises public health costs.

Data centers use a lot of water. This means areas with water shortages face less water and worse hygiene. Noise and light pollution also worry people living near data centers.In 2025,A data center in Chandler, Arizona, made residents try to stop another one from being built nearby. Resident Jeff Weninger explained,

We already have problems in some neighborhoods... people hear a constant hum from the 160 acres of data centers we possess.

As of November 2025,The United States hosted 5,427 data centers. This number is the majority of North American data centers—5,767 total—which equals 48% of global data centers. Germany had the second most with 529, and the United Kingdom followed with 523.

The U.S. will see more data centers soon. In 2026, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, and other major tech firms plan to build or grow data centers in the United States for rising AI needs. Pew Research found morethan 1,500 data centersare planned by April 2026.

This global trend holds true, as the United Nations Trade and Development report from January 2026 showed more than $270 billion went to foreign investmentsin technologydata centers account"for more thanone fifth of global greenfield project values, making them among the largest receivers of new, from-scratch foreign investment worldwide."

Five types of data centers exist: Enterprise, Colocation, Cloud, Hyperscale, and Edge.

Enterprise data centers are owned and run by a private company or corporation. They often sit on a corporate campus. Central control manages security, maintenance, and everything else, but it demands much money, space, and oversight for an enterprise data center.

Colocation data centers alsocalled managed data centers,are rented by several companies. They offer a cheap option for groups too small to build their own centers.

Cloud and hyperscale often merge into one group because hyperscale supports cloud-scale needs. Cloud data centers hold data for computing, storage, and networking for AI, analytics, and application workloads. When cloud data centers grow big enough, they become part ofor entirely a hyperscale facility.or entirely a hyperscale facility.

Edge data centers are smaller than others and stay local. This lets end users and devices access information with less delay.

Four tiers classify data center use and need alongside data center types. Established by the Uptime Institute.The Uptime Institute established these tiers.The tiers are as follows:

To find the world's largest data center, assess its land use, power capacity, and total economic and environmental impact.

In 2024, the average US data center site used 224 acres for land.The average site spanned 224 acres.The data center in China covers about 0.35 square miles. This size compares poorly to the world's two biggest data centers, both situated in China.China Telecom Data Center in Hohhot, Mongolia, sits in the Inner Mongolia Information Park.The center sits in Hohhot, Mongolia, inside the Inner Mongolia Information Park.It has a surface area of nearly one million square meters and a power capacity of about 150 megawatts. That equals 248 acres.

Europe's largest data center by acreage is the SINES DC data center in Portuga.The SINES DC data center is in Portuga.The site keeps growing in land use and power capacity.It expands both land footprint and power capacity.This adds nearly 19 acres and over one gigawatt hour capacity.It adds nearly 19 acres and over one gigawatt hour capacity.

The largest data center in the United States is located in Nevada atthe Citadel Campus near Tahoe and Reno in Nevada.The Citadel Campus.This campus is one of five Exascale locations by Switch technologies. It supports up to 7.2 million square feet of data center space and 650 megawatts (MW) of power.

Each artificial intelligence prompt uses more energy than other computing tasks. Google reported that a Gemini prompt uses about 0.24 watt-hours of electricity in 2025. ChatGPT founder Sam Altman wrote that each query costs about 0.34 watt-hours (he lacked proof).Researchers extrapolated this energy use:

Two and a half billion queries daily equal nearly a trillion queries yearly. ChatGPT could pass that total in 2025 if its users keep growing. One year of energy use equals powering 29,000 U.S. homes for a year.One year of energy use equals powering 29,000 US homes for a year, nearly the same amount as in Jonesboro, Ark..

Other generative AI models use similar energy. This means more servers and information technology are needed. Data centers house these systems for cooling.

AI energy use, data centers, and rising greenhouse gas emissions have a direct link. This holds true for cloud computing and other technologies. Digital technologies caused 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2018.Digital technologies caused 3.7% of greenhouse gas emissions globally in 2018.Researchers found that in 2025, global emissions were 3.7% from digital technologies.Researchers from Cornell indicated that by 2030, AI growth would add 24 to 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere annually.

By 2030, AI growth will add 24 to 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year. This equals adding 5 to 10 million cars to U.S. roads.

Data centers have existed since modern computers began. In the 1940s, a data center housed the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) at the University of Pennsylvania.The New York Timesas

ENIAC applied electronic speeds to math tasks that were previously too hard and complicated to solve.

ENIAC's capabilities were revolutionary. However, the equipment weighed 30 tons and needed a "mainframe"—a data center—to store the generated information.This was the information ENIAC generated.ENIAC calculated ammunition use and served applications like

The New York Times covers weather prediction, atomic energy calculations, cosmic ray studies, thermal ignition, random-number studies, wind tunnel design, and more.

ENIAC was intended for United States military use. Later, people used it for civilian purposes.The growth of computers after ENIAC demanded more and more data centers, especially for the military. These centers were built for United States military use but later served civilian needs.

During the 1950s and 1960sPrivate companies like IBM built data centers in their offices or similar spots. This trend continued through the 1970s as computers remained large; Intel, Xerox Alto, and others adapted computer use across industries.

Personal computers appeared in 1981, and network computing grew. This meant more data centers were needed across industries. The dot-com boom of the 1990s, thespread of the internet, and the rise of cloud services all required more data centers globally., and the creation of cloud services meant more data centers were needed worldwide.

In the early 2010sguidelines appeared for ""minimal space and environmental needs for data center equipment and spaces."Data centers support cloud storage, AI, and other computer processes.By then, Google had built a huge data center. In 2013, Google invested $21 billion in internet infrastructure—$1.6 billion of that money went to data centers in the second quarter of that year.The facility was dedicated to data centers during the second quarter of that year.

Cryptocurrency data centers exist.and the AI boom of the 2010s and 2020s increased the need for data centers. Regarding the latter, as of 2024,to the latter, as of 2024

Data centers made up about 1.5% of the world’s electricity use in 2024...The United States used the most global data center electricity in 2024 (45%). China followed with 25%, and Europe with 15%.

Data center energy use will likely double by 2030. AI drives this increase.because each prompt uses 0.24 watt-hours of electricity on average. Although AI gets better, the complex use of AI cancels out energy savings.Each prompt uses 0.24 watt-hours of electricity on average. AI becomes more efficient, but complex AI use cancels out energy gains.Complex AI use cancels out energy gains.

Some assert building data centers in space can cut Earth data center resource use. A space data center would function like a low-orbit satellite using equipment to process data.

There are data centers in space.Numerous challenges exist.to a space-based data center. One challenge is cooling. The debate on this concern is split. Some argue space's vacuum won't cool data centers well, but engineering designs counter this.Engineering counters these challenges.Radiation exposure is another problem. It could corrupt data and damage hardware.Data could get corrupted.Another issue for a space data center is controlling existing satellites and overcrowding the area.

The engineering challenges are allThese issues are arguably surmountable.but only at great expense. An engineer broke down the costs.Andrew McCalip establisheda model to price the cost to build and run a space data center.Ultimately, these factors determine the outcome.

This is not physically impossible. The question is whether scaling up is economically smart. The answer is it is close.