Microsoft CEO says new AI data centers use as little water annually as a restaurant — closed-loop cooling system aims to slash consumption from millions of gallons as AI infrastructure faces mounting environmental scrutiny

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has claimed that the company’s newest generation of AI data centers uses so little water that its annual consumption is roughly equivalent to that of a single restaurant. Speaking at Microsoft Build 2026 on June 2, Nadella made the claim while outlining Microsoft’s “Community-First AI Infrastructure” strategy aimed to address growing concerns about the impact of data centers on local communities.

“The cooling loop is filled once, and the data center can operate effectively with zero water consumption,” Nadella said during his keynote, while describing how new architectures are redefining data center water consumption. “The daily water usage over the course of an entire year is roughly equivalent to what a single restaurant would use.”

While Nadella did not specify the size or type of restaurant used for comparison, the claim is striking given the scale of modern hyperscale AI…