The promise of artificial intelligence is immense, but its rapid expansion is revealing a stark reality for communities worldwide. Take central Mexico, for example. When Microsoft launched a new data center there last year, locals in towns like Las Cenizas noticed an immediate and alarming shift. Power outages, once an occasional nuisance, became a daily struggle, and water shortages stretched from mere days to agonizing weeks.
For Dulce María Nicolás, a mother of two, these disruptions have meant school cancellations and a worrying spread of stomach bugs, pushing her to consider leaving her home. Dr. Víctor Bárcenas, who tirelessly runs a local health clinic, has found himself stitching up wounds by flashlight. In one devastating instance last December, a 54-year-old farmer was denied crucial oxygen when the electricity failed, forcing an urgent, hour-long transfer to a distant hospital.
These are not isolated incidents. Across the globe, from bustling cities to quiet villages, the accelerating boom in AI development is placing immense pressure on already strained power grids and precious water resources. The consequences are dire, impacting daily life and basic human needs for countless vulnerable populations.
While the United States leads the charge in the data center boom, with tech giants like OpenAI, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft pouring hundreds of billions into building these colossal computing hubs for artificial intelligence, this construction frenzy isn’t contained within its borders. In fact, it’s being aggressively exported globally, often with far less public oversight.
A recent analysis by Synergy Research Group revealed that nearly 60% of the world’s 1,244 largest data centers are already situated outside the U.S. And this trend is only accelerating, with at least 575 more projects underway globally, involving major players such as Tencent, Meta, and Alibaba.
As these power-hungry facilities proliferate, requiring immense electricity for computing and vast quantities of water for cooling the computers, they are creating or worsening severe disruptions in over a dozen countries, as uncovered by a New York Times investigation. For instance, in Ireland, data centers already consume more than 20% of the nation’s electricity. Chile’s vital aquifers face severe depletion, and in South Africa, where blackouts have long been a harsh reality, these centers further burden an already fragile national grid. Similar crises are emerging in Brazil, Britain, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Spain.
Compounding these problems is a disturbing lack of transparency. Major tech companies frequently operate through obscure subsidiaries and service providers, effectively concealing their true footprint and revealing minimal information about the precious resources their facilities consume.
Governments, eager to establish a foothold in the burgeoning AI economy, often facilitate this expansion by offering cheap land, significant tax breaks, and unrestricted access to resources. This creates an environment with minimal regulation and disclosure requirements.
Tech companies, locked in a fierce competition to develop advanced AI models and achieve “superintelligence” or AI with power that exceeds the human brain, argue that these data centers bring much-needed jobs and investment. They claim to be actively working on reducing their environmental impact through self-generated energy and water recycling initiatives. However, such assurances often fall short.
Microsoft, for example, stated it found no evidence that its central Mexico data center contributed to local power or water issues, citing the region’s pre-existing electrical instability. The company claimed minimal water usage and an electricity load equivalent to powering approximately 50,000 Mexican homes annually. Bowen Wallace, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for data centers in the Americas, asserted, “We will always prioritize the basic needs of the community.”
Despite these claims, Alejandro Sterling, Querétaro’s director of industrial development, acknowledged that central Mexico’s electric grid is indeed “overdrawn” and prone to blackouts. While directly attributing every local shortage to a specific data center remains challenging, experts agree that constructing these facilities in areas with unstable infrastructure and existing resource scarcity inevitably exacerbates vulnerabilities, leading to widespread “cascading effects.”
In response, a growing global coalition of activists, residents, and environmental organizations is rising in opposition. They are actively working to block new projects and advocate for greater oversight and transparency. Ireland has already placed limits on new data centers in Dublin due to “significant risk” to power supplies. Google retracted plans for a Chilean data center after protests over water depletion, and construction on several centers in the Netherlands was halted due to environmental concerns.
“Data centers are where environmental and social issues meet,” declared Rosi Leonard, an environmentalist with Friends of the Earth Ireland. “There’s a prevailing narrative that these centers bring wealth and prosperity, but for many, this is becoming a genuine crisis.”
Despite this mounting opposition, the data center boom shows no signs of slowing. Investment bank UBS projects global spending on data centers to reach $375 billion this year, surging to $500 billion in 2026.
Sales of water storage containers have become increasingly common in La Esperanza, a town in central Mexico, as residents prepare for water shortages.
Back in Mexico, frustrated residents believe data center development should be accompanied by substantial community investment. La Esperanza, a village near Microsoft’s facility, experienced a hepatitis outbreak this summer. Water shortages made handwashing and basic hygiene impossible, leading to rapid disease transmission, with around 50 people falling ill. Dr. Victor Bárcenas lamented, “I blame the state governments for failing to negotiate support for the community. Microsoft’s project involved millions of dollars of investment, and none of it went to us, to the people.”
A Rising Tide of Environmental Activism
In the picturesque western Irish town of Ennis, a developer set ambitious plans five years ago: to transform 150 acres of open fields, currently home to grazing horses, into a massive four-billion-euro data center for an undisclosed tech company. However, environmental groups and local residents have vigorously opposed the project, filing numerous legal objections and appeals to halt its progress.
Not long ago, such a proposal in Ireland would likely have faced little resistance. For two decades, the nation eagerly welcomed tech giants, with Apple, Google, Microsoft, and TikTok establishing their European headquarters there. Today, approximately 120 data centers are scattered across the country, primarily clustered around Dublin. Projections indicate that within a few years, a staggering one-third of Ireland’s total electricity consumption will be dedicated to powering these data centers, a dramatic increase from just 5 percent in 2015.
For decades, Ireland rolled out the red carpet for tech giants. Apple, Google, Microsoft and TikTok made the country their European base.
However, Ireland’s once-welcoming stance has decidedly soured. The nation now stands as a prime example of the growing international backlash against the unchecked proliferation of data centers.
Opposition began to gather force in 2021 when the environmental socialist group, People Before Profit, staged protests at a data center conference in Dublin. Simultaneously, residents in County Clare, home to Ennis, initiated challenges against the proposed facility slated for conversion from farmland.
Since then, a robust protest movement has blossomed. Local luminaries, including best-selling author Sally Rooney, have publicly voiced their concerns. Last year, activist Darragh Adelaide, also from People Before Profit, secured a seat on the South Dublin County Council, which subsequently rejected a data center application from Google.
The debate intensified in January, when severe storms plunged western Ireland into widespread power outages, igniting heated discussions about the electrical grid’s breaking point.
“There’s a reason why the grid is under strain, and it’s because of the disproportionate number of data centers,” stated Sinéad Sheehan, an activist instrumental in organizing a petition against the Ennis project, which garnered over 1,000 signatures.
Sinéad Sheehan, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Galway, organized a petition against a proposed data center project in County Clare.
Ireland’s experience serves as a stark warning. By 2035, global data centers are projected to consume as much electricity as India, currently the world’s most populous country, according to the International Energy Agency. Furthermore, a single data center can devour over 500,000 gallons of water daily, nearly matching the capacity of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
In response, environmental groups globally are actively collaborating, sharing vital information, protest tactics, and resources to amplify their collective pushback.
A third of Ireland’s electricity is expected to go to data centers in the next few years, up from 5 percent in 2015.
In Spain, Aurora Gómez Delgado, an environmentalist who protested a Meta facility near Madrid in 2023, was astounded by the international outpouring of support she received. Today, her organization, Tu Nube Seca Mi Río (Your Cloud Dries Up My River), collaborates with dozens of similar groups worldwide, even inspiring a new collective in France.
“There’s nowhere that doesn’t have a data center,” Ms. Gómez Delgado explained. “We’re coordinated. We’re talking to each other all the time.”
Despite their synchronized efforts, she and her colleagues acknowledge the uphill battle ahead. In Ireland, even with limitations on data centers near Dublin, authorities are attempting to fast-track approvals for new sites in rural areas like County Clare and County Mayo, driven by strong support from the business community.
While environmentalists in Ireland have faced setbacks in court appeals against data center construction, they remain hopeful their actions will ultimately deter companies. On September 30, approximately 50 individuals gathered outside Dublin’s Parliament to protest further data center expansion.
Policies That Welcome, or Exploit?
The fate of the Ennis data center project in Ireland remains uncertain, pending a final legal appeal. Even if approved, its future is now in question, as Amazon, initially revealed to be the driving force, has withdrawn. This leaves the local developer scrambling to secure another tech partner.
In a statement, Amazon claimed, “We are committed to being a good neighbor, so we spend a lot of time listening to and understanding a community’s needs and priorities.”
A new data center in the municipality of El Marqués, Querétaro, in Mexico. Many of the country’s 110 data centers are in the region.
Meanwhile, in Querétaro, central Mexico, an official championing the region’s transformation into a data center hub openly declared that disruptions to power and water supplies are merely the “price of progress.”
“Those are happy problems,” Alejandro Sterling, the director of industrial development for Querétaro, said of water shortages and power outages in the area.
Alejandro Sterling, Querétaro’s director of industrial development, where 110 of Mexico’s data centers are located, disturbingly labeled these community hardships as “happy problems.” He clarified, “Not for the people that suffer it, but for the development of the place.”
This sentiment, often expressed more subtly, is echoed by officials globally eager to attract tech companies. Brazil is introducing new tax incentives. Malaysia has designated an industrial zone specifically for Chinese and Silicon Valley firms. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia even launched a diplomatic campaign to secure support from former President Trump for acquiring crucial AI chips. The European Union, too, has pledged billions for new regional data centers.
Darragh O’Brien, Ireland’s Minister for Climate, Energy, and the Environment, observed that data center construction is increasingly shifting to nations with the most lenient and welcoming policies. “A very important part of our industrial strategy is being at the leading edge of new technologies and data,” he stated.
Ana Valdivia, an Oxford University lecturer specializing in data center development, highlights that global government support has allowed tech firms to operate with minimal accountability. Environmental regulations tailored for data centers are scarce, and companies frequently insist on a degree of secrecy from their host governments.
In Mexico, Sterling outlined an ambitious plan to quadruple data center electricity use to 1.5 gigawatts over the next five years, an amount equivalent to powering 1.25 million American homes. He candidly admitted that non-disclosure agreements with tech companies were essential to secure these deals, obliging him to withhold information from both local communities and Mexico’s national electricity utility. “I signed that NDA as a public service,” he claimed.
Project operators often mask their involvement through complex networks of subsidiaries or external contractors. In Mexico, one Microsoft data center is operated by Ascenty, a Latin American data center firm. In Ireland, the abandoned Amazon project was being developed by Art Data Centres.
An aerial view of a Google data center on a hazy day in Santiago, Chile. Data centers need power for computing and use water to cool the computers.
Despite mounting concerns, company representatives and government officials often reassure the public that new technologies, such as advanced water-recycling cooling systems, are effectively mitigating resource strains.
“Data centers use a lot of water, they don’t waste a lot of water,” Mr. Sterling asserted.
However, Teresa Roldán, an activist in Mexico, voiced deep skepticism about Querétaro’s new proposal to recycle sewage for public drinking water. She noted that data center companies already have direct access to groundwater, suggesting that residents would ultimately be left with filtered sewage water while industry continued its current practices.
“All the Electricity,” None for the People
Towering over 800 feet, Microsoft’s massive data center complex dominates a hill in the arid mesquite plains north of Mexico City. This area, once vital grazing land for local and Indigenous communities who depended on its natural spring, is now a fenced-off expanse. Drone footage reveals a newly constructed reservoir, starkly surrounded by fresh earth – a clear sign of significant resource redirection.
Querétaro first welcomed data centers approximately five years ago, drawn by its strategic proximity to the U.S., relative safety from drug-related violence, and a local government keen to attract multinational corporations. Microsoft led the charge, soon followed by Amazon and Google, transforming quiet industrial parks into bustling construction zones.
Construction underway at a data center in El Marqués, Querétaro.
For the impoverished small towns surrounding these developments, which already struggled with basic services, the impact was immediate. Residents report experiencing longer water shortages and more frequent blackouts, according to testimony from over a dozen individuals.
“There are patients with kidney failure who need their machines for treatment,” explained Manuel Rodríguez, a local government representative. “There are people with diabetes who need to keep their medication refrigerated.” The absence of consistent power directly jeopardizes their health.
Mexico’s national power company has attributed recent outages to lightning strikes and even stray animals. However, many residents see a clear connection to the new data centers.
The financial toll on residents has been substantial. Elizabeth Sánchez, a 39-year-old homemaker in Viborillas, a town close to the data centers, and her neighbors began experiencing water outages in June 2024. They now collectively pay a $60 fee for private water trucks. Beyond this, Ms. Sánchez has repeatedly had to discard spoiled food due to electricity failures, with one recent blackout even damaging her daughter’s computer and their refrigerator. “We can’t keep up, so we adapt,” she stated, highlighting how a part-time courier job helps offset these unexpected costs.
Dulce María Nicolás, the mother of two in Las Cenizas, who owns a convenience store, said she faced regular electricity and water cuts.
Dulce María Nicolás, 30, whose convenience store in Las Cenizas is central to her family’s livelihood, has twice been forced to throw away rotting food this summer due to blackouts. Prolonged water cuts have compelled her to purchase extra jugs for storage, creating a “double cost” for her household. Her children have suffered from stomach bugs because proper dishwashing became impossible, and school has been canceled when toilets could not flush.
For her 11-year-old, the frustration often centered on a lack of access to their phones, underscoring how deeply modern life is intertwined with consistent electricity. Ms. Nicolás points to the data center as the undeniable cause. “They have all the electricity,” she said of the tech company. “I’m left with nothing.”
Selam Gebrekidan contributed reporting from Hong Kong.