A detailed analysis challenges the growing concerns about datacenter water consumption by comparing one of the world’s largest AI facilities to fast food restaurants.
Nicolas Bontigui writes for SemiAnalysis that Elon Musk’s Colossus 2 datacenter in Memphis consumes approximately 346 million gallons of water annually. This figure equals roughly 2.5 In-N-Out burger restaurants, each using about 147 million gallons per year.
The analysis focuses on blue water consumption, which includes surface and groundwater. For the datacenter, this encompasses cooling systems, chip manufacturing, and initial system fills. The facility operates with 400 megawatts of critical IT capacity using hybrid cooling technology with 130 dry coolers and 135 adiabatic cooling units.
For burgers, the calculation centers on beef production, which accounts for 95 percent of water usage. The irrigation of cattle feed crops like alfalfa and corn drives most consumption. Each Double-Double burger requires approximately 245 gallons of water.
The report estimates Colossus 2 could generate 3.9 quadrillion output tokens annually, translating to 2.7 billion tokens per burger. This means one burger’s water footprint equals using Grok 30 times daily for 668 years.
SemiAnalysis notes that xAI is building a water recycling plant using municipal wastewater to supply cooling needs, potentially making Colossus 2 a net zero water datacenter.
With over 400 In-N-Out locations and hundreds of thousands of burger restaurants nationwide, the analysis suggests datacenter water concerns may be disproportionate to actual consumption.
