Kevin O’Leary says data centres use less water than golf courses. The numbers are more complicated.
THE SO WHAT
Comparing AI data center water use to golf courses is a political narrative, not an operations benchmark—local water stress, cooling design, and reuse matter more than national aggregates. If you’re siting or expanding compute, assume water accounting will become as scrutinized as carbon and get ahead of it with transparent, location-specific metrics.
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