AI Data Centers Bringing Blackouts Lasting Days, Water Shortages Lasting Weeks, And Public Fury

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When Microsoft opened a data center in central Mexico last year, nearby residents said power cuts became more frequent. Water outages, which once lasted days, stretched for weeks. The shortages led to school cancellations and the spread of stomach bugs in the town of Las Cenizas, said Dulce María Nicolás, a resident and mother of two. She has considered moving. Víctor Bárcenas, who runs a local health clinic, has stitched up children by flashlight. In December, he was unable to give oxygen to a 54-year-old farmer because the power went out. The patient was rushed to a hospital nearly an hour away.

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Nearly 60 percent of the 1,244 largest data centers in the world were outside the United States as of the end of June, according to an analysis by Synergy Research Group, which studies the industry. More are coming, with at least 575 data center projects in development globally from companies including Tencent, Meta and Alibaba.

As data centers 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 centers consume more than 20 percent of the country’s electricity. In Chile, precious aquifers are in danger of depletion. In South Africa, where blackouts have long been routine, data centers are further taxing the national grid. Similar concerns have surfaced in Brazil, Britain, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and Spain. The issues have been compounded by a lack of transparency. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other tech companies often work through subsidiaries and service providers to build data centers, masking their presence and revealing little about the resources that the facilities consume.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/technology/ai-data-center-backlash-mexico-ireland.html