Microsoft's new AI datacenter uses less water than a fast food restaurant

iGuRu.gr > Microsoft's new AI datacenter uses less water than a fast food restaurant

Microsoft has announced plans to build a new datacenter campus in Pecos, Texas, as the company continues to invest billions in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The new facility, dubbed Project Kilby, will reportedly have a capacity of 2 gigawatts and will be one of the largest single capacity additions in the company’s history.

To power the campus, Microsoft has signed a 20-year deal with Chevron to source natural gas from the Permian Basin, America’s largest oil field. The deal will be the largest partnership to date between an American oil and gas giant and a major technology company.

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It's no secret that big tech companies have been criticized for exploiting natural resources for advances in artificial intelligence. Microsoft is trying to mitigate some of that negative perception by promising to build its own power supply for the new data center, which will be independent of the public grid.

The Pecos data center will be powered by a Chevron-built power plant with a capacity of up to 2,5 gigawatts of natural gas-fired power, scalable to 5 gigawatts. The facility will include at least seven GE Vernova wind turbines, with the first power potentially coming online as early as late 2027 or early 2028.

The power plant hub is part of a roughly $7 billion investment by Chevron, making it one of the largest dedicated energy projects tied to a single datacenter campus in the U.S. Microsoft has not yet publicly disclosed how much it is investing in the new data center.

Microsoft has committed to implementing a closed-loop cooling system that will require only an initial water consumption to operate. The company said that “the total water consumption over the life cycle of this data center will be just a fraction of the water consumed annually by a typical fast-food restaurant.”

What the press release doesn't mention, however, is how much water the natural gas plant itself will consume or how a 20-year fossil fuel commitment aligns with the company's commitment to be carbon negative by 2030.