pardon my ignorance, in what was does it "consume water"? water cooling is closed loop
Fabs use water in a way that's not closed loop see e.g. [0]
[0] https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/07/the-water-challenge-...
I see, thanks. Seems just a matter of cost to reclaim it. Maybe regulation is needed
the planet is a water closed loop. the vapor condenses as rain somewhere
Data centers do use a lot of water on average. Warmer climate data centers often use evaporative cooling and can run through millions of gallons of water to offload heat. Google's data centers combined chewed through some 6 billion gallons of water last year.
Closed systems are much more water-efficient, and are more common in cooler climates.