Lutnick claims that data centers, known for water consumption, ‘don’t use water’

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed Wednesday that data centers “don’t use water” despite the facilities’ significant water usage raising concerns for communities that may host them.

In an interview with CNBC , Lutnick said, “One of my favorite things is when people talk about data centers using water. The No. 1 product in America that uses water is cattle.”

“I mean, data centers don’t use water,” he added. “This is propaganda by our adversaries to try to slow us down.”

Data centers used an estimated 66 billion liters of water in 2023, most of which went to hyperscale data centers, according to a 2024 report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Hyperscalers alone are expected to consume between 60 billion and 124 billion liters in 2028, the report projected.

In 2015, the total U.S. water use was estimated to be about 322 billion gallons per day, or more than 400 trillion liters per year. At that time, the government estimated that power plants were the nation’s largest water users, followed by irrigation.

AI companies have argued that concerns over data center water usage are overblown, pointing to other industries that use more water. However, even industry trade groups acknowledge that data centers use some quantity of water.

They have also sought to underscore new technologies, such as closed-loop cooling systems, that can limit the amount of water new data centers require.

Lutnick’s comments come as the Trump administration has repeatedly defended data centers despite growing bipartisan backlash against the AI infrastructure. President Trump on Monday called on the U.S. to “let Data reign” and accused data center opponents of wanting their communities to be “backwards and poor.”

“The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them. If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement,” Trump wrote on Truth Social .

Water use is just one factor behind the public pushback to the server warehouses. Americans have also raised concerns about high electric bills, noise and pollution.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to hold a hearing Thursday on draft legislation to address data centers’ water usage.