Fury mounts over global Al frenzy

Some countries hit by blackouts and water shortages as data centres surge

- Paul Mozur, Adam Satariano and Emiliano Rodriguez Mega

A new data centre in the municipality of El Marques, near Queretaro in Mexico. As data centres rise, the sites - which need vast amounts of power for computing and water to cool the computers - have contributed to or exacerbated disruptions not only in Mexico, but in more than a dozen other countries. But there are few signs of a slowdown by tech companies.

(PHOTO: CESAR RODRIGUEZ/NYTIMES)

The United States has been at the nexus of a data centre boom, as OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others invest hundreds of billions to build the giant computing sites in the name of advancing artificial intelligence (AI).

But the companies have also exported the construction frenzy abroad, with less scrutiny.

Nearly 60 per cent of the 1,244 largest data centres in the world were outside the US as at the end of June, according to an analysis by Synergy Research Group, which studies the industry.

More are coming, with at least 575 data centre projects in development globally from companies including Tencent, Meta and Alibaba.

As data centres rise, the sites — which need vast amounts of power for computing and water to cool the computers - have contributed to or exacerbated disruptions not only in Mexico, but in more than a dozen other countries, according to a New York Times examination.

In Ireland, data centres consume more than 20 per cent of the country’s electricity. In Chile, precious aquifers are in danger of depletion. In South Africa, where blackouts have long been routine, data centres are further taxing the national grid.

Similar concerns have surfaced in Brazil, Britain, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and Spain.