Booming demand for artificial intelligence tools, accelerated by the uptake of generative AI, is putting an increasing strain on water supplies to cool the IT infra-structure underpinning the technology. Now, the companies operating these data centres are facing calls to make the facilities much more efficient and subject to greater regulation.

In the US, Virginia state legislators have advanced a bill aimed at addressing data centres’ water use. The bill would authorise municipalities to require centres to submit water use estimates as part of building requirements. Virginia is currently home to one of the world’s biggest concentrations of data centres, used by companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

The bill, which is waiting for approval or veto from governor Glenn Youngkin, reflects voters’ concerns about data centres draining local water resources. The Virginia Conservation Network, an environmental non-profit organisation, argued in February that the state of Virginia has no regulatory oversight of data centre development and that it should collect more information about their water usage in order to plan better.