Amazon just told the world how thirsty its cloud computing empire really is. The company disclosed that its global data center operations withdrew approximately 2.5 billion gallons of water in 2025, marking the first time Amazon has publicly accounted for this particular resource drain.
The numbers behind the disclosure
Despite aggressively expanding its data center footprint to keep pace with AI demand, Amazon says water withdrawals at sites it directly owns and operates actually fell by 2% compared to the prior year.
The company’s water usage effectiveness, or WUE, hit 0.12 liters per kilowatt-hour in 2025. That figure represents a 52% improvement since 2021. The industry average sits around 0.84 liters per kilowatt-hour. Amazon’s number is roughly seven times better than that benchmark.
Amazon also reported returning about two-thirds of the water it used through community infrastructure projects. The company says it’s now 75% of the way toward its goal of becoming “water positive” by 2030, meaning it would return more water to local communities than it consumes through direct operations.
