{"id":217063,"date":"2026-09-06T07:26:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T07:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/217063\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T07:26:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T07:26:44","slug":"openai-ceo-sam-altman-says-38000-chatgpt-queries-use-as-much-water-as-the-production-of-one-almond-says-data-centers-use-no-more-water-than-an-office-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/217063\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says 38,000 ChatGPT queries use as much water as the production of one almond \u2014 says data centers use no more water than an office building"},"content":{"rendered":"

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has downplayed the water consumption issue that AI data centers are facing, saying that it has been blown out of proportion over time and does not keep up with the latest developments in data center cooling technology. Altman said this in an episode of the Sources Podcast with Alex Heath<\/a>, where the two talk about the backlash against AI development. He claimed that producing a single almond in California is equivalent to 38,000 ChatGPT queries.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou know, I saw this thing going around about the water usage of ChatGPT. And it was like every time you run a single ChatGPT query, it\u2019s like, you know, you run your shower for like six hours. And the water never comes back, and it\u2019s just done. I don\u2019t have the exact calculation in front of me, but I think the real number is something like \u2014 doing this from memory, it might be wrong, but it\u2019s close \u2014 for every 38,000 ChatGPT queries, that is the same amount of water that is used in the production of a single almond in California\u2026 This is like the full-on, you know, total true water accounting, not just what\u2019s running in one data center,\u201d Altman told the host.<\/p>\n

SAM ALTMAN: \u201cFor every 38,000 ChatGPT queries, that is the same amount of water that is used in the production of a single almond in California.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/vRCCPneJSmSeptember 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s a question of like where this came from because the people that are scarfing down 12 almonds at a time don\u2019t feel like they\u2019re doing something horrible from a water perspective, for the most part. It is true that data centers at one point used evaporative cooling, but they have not done that in a long time. Like if you look at a modern very large data center, it uses the equivalent amount of water as an office building in terms of, you know, people like running the sinks and the toilets and whatever. So, that has been a robust meme and difficult to disprove, but I don\u2019t think it holds up to any scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s true that almonds are some of the most water-intensive crops being grown in the U.S. Researchers say that it takes about 1.1 gallons of water to grow a single almond. By comparison, Altman’s own statements in the past indicate that one ChatGPT response uses somewhere between 1 to 50mL of water<\/a>, ostensibly using older evaporative cooling techniques, or about 0.0002 to 0.013 gallons per query. While this is nowhere near Altman\u2019s 38,000 estimate, it\u2019s still about 85 to 5,500 ChatGPT queries per almond using an unspecified cooling method. Nevertheless, training AI models in older facilities can use far more water, with estimates suggesting that GPT-3 used up almost 185,000 gallons of water with older systems, while the increasing popularity of AI, especially AI agents which use up a lot more tokens than just chatbots<\/a>, means that data centers could still use more water compared to almond farming.<\/p>\n

In fact, multiple data centers across the United States have faced issues with their water consumption, with one site in Fayette County, Georgia, using up 29 million gallons over a span of 15 months<\/a> and another development in Morgan County, Georgia, allegedly causing the water of its neighbors to turn muddy<\/a>. Altman admitted that data centers that used older technologies like evaporative cooling used a lot of water, but he also mentioned that new techniques and technologies have been developed that cut down data center water use. Some examples of this include Nvidia\u2019s liquid cooling system that runs \u201chotter than a hot tub,\u201d<\/a> which cuts water use by 100%, and Microsoft\u2019s closed-loop cooling systems, which use the same amount of water as a restaurant<\/a>. Amazon<\/a> even claimed that its data centers consume only 0.075% of the water that Americans use for their lawns and gardens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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You can watch the complete podcast episode below.<\/p>\n

Sam Altman on OpenAI\u2019s next model and the AI backlash – YouTube
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