By Naimul Karim
Publication Date: 2026-04-07 18:10:00
Tech giants are facing increasing scrutiny over the environmental impact of their operations, but Microsoft Canada Inc. says its data centres for artificial intelligence (AI) use won’t increase the price of electricity for Canadians or affect their water use.
AI data centres are filled with supercomputers that conduct huge amounts of calculations that can quickly consume more than 100 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to the annual consumption of 100,000 households, according to the International Energy Agency.
The centres also require water to cool down because they quickly heat up, with an average mid-sized data centre using about 1.4 million litres of water a day, according to Verisk Maplecroft, an England-based risk consultant.
Microsoft, which committed to investing $19 billion…
