Microsoft is revealing the first details of a new data center design that requires significantly less water to cool its servers.

In August, Microsoft launched a new data center design that optimizes AI workloads and doesn’t use water for cooling. “By using chip-level cooling solutions, we can enable precise temperature control without water evaporation. This design eliminates the need for more than 40 million gallons of water per year per data center,” said Steve Solomon, vice president of data center infrastructure engineering. He shares more details about this design in a blog.

Reducing water consumption

These new liquid cooling technologies utilize a closed loop that recycles water, eliminating the need for additional fresh water after the initial fill during construction. The system continuously circulates water between servers and chillers to dissipate heat, resulting in significant improvements in water use efficiency.

With an average water use effectiveness (WUE) of 0.30 L/kWh in the last fiscal year, a 39 percent improvement compared to 2021, Microsoft has made its data centers more efficient by reducing water waste, using alternative water sources and optimizing processes. This includes the use of recycled and treated water at various locations worldwide.

Implementation

Since the 2000s, Microsoft has improved its WUE by 80 percent thanks to innovations in data center designs and technologies. Developing zero-water evaporation data centers is the next step in reducing WUE to near zero, even as data center infrastructure expands. This progress reflects the pursuit of more sustainable use of water resources in the face of increasing global water challenges. By implementing these technologies, Microsoft expects to further minimize the overall impact on water consumption.

“While our current fleet will still use a mix of air-cooled and water-cooled systems, new projects in Phoenix, Arizona and Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin, are designing evaporative water evaporation testing in 2026,” Solomon said.