Often, AI dominates conversations in meetings, news cycles, and boardrooms. The money proves it. According to PwC's Global Data Centre Outlook, global investment in AI infrastructure will hit a record US$31.6 trillion through to 2050. Goldman Sachs Research forecasts US data center power demand will more than double to 66 GW in 2027 from 31 GW in 2025. The subject of all this attention stays the same: AI. Yet, the technology that makes it possible rarely gets mentioned.
The conversations about AI differ. It is the innovation it brings to business, or the damage it does to the environment, or the energy it demands. The subject does not. People pay very little attention to the things that make AI possible in the first place, from the chips it runs on to the data centers that house them. Those facilities are power-hungry and water-hungry. Demand keeps climbing, and so does the pressure to build more, bigger, and faster.
