Nvidia Unveils Liquid-Cooled Data Center Design to Reduce Water Usage Nvidia’s latest bid to ease environmental concerns around AI data centers has set off a debate over how much of the industry’s water problem is really solved.

On June 22, during London Climate Week, Nvidia unveiled a new warm-liquid cooling design for its next-generation Rubin AI servers, saying data centers can now run “100 percent liquid cooling” and operate chips at up to 113°F (45°C). The company’s coolant—a recirculated mix of water and propylene glycol—captures heat directly at the chip, allowing facilities to eliminate most traditional chillers and evaporative cooling towers.

Nvidia’s chief sustainability officer Josh Parker argued that, at the facility level, the problem is nearly gone. “The water consumption challenge for data centers is largely solved,” he told Axios, pointing to a design that can take cooling water use “from roughly 2.6 million gallons per megawatt per year for conventional cooling-tower-based systems to near zero — up to a 100 percent reduction.” Microsoft data center engineering vice president Steve Solomon, speaking before the announcement, said such higher-temperature liquid cooling “could eliminate the need for any type of mechanical chiller in most climates.”

The rollout quickly drew support from AI boosters. Nvidia highlighted that data centers account for just 0.2% of daily U.S. water use, a share that has been “dramatically decreased” by newer approaches, in a post that Elon Musk simply endorsed as “True.” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas argued that “the marginal water consumption of a properly implemented data center for its liquid cooling is almost zero,” saying critics often confuse water used at power plants with that used for on-site cooling.

But others warned that Nvidia is drawing the boundary too narrowly. TechCrunch noted that the closed-loop coolant “does nothing to address AI’s biggest water use — fossil fuel power plants” that supply electricity, which can “double or triple the total water footprint of a facility.” By counting only what happens inside the building, Nvidia’s solution may cover just “a quarter to a third” of AI data centers’ total water consumption, the outlet reported.

Even advocates concede change will take time: the Rubin-style design must still be built out across new facilities while older air‑cooled centers continue to draw on water-intensive systems. The emerging consensus is that Nvidia’s design could nearly eliminate cooling water inside data centers, but the broader AI water footprint will depend on how fast operators shift to low‑water electricity and cleaner supply chains.

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