AI Data Center Impact

74major AI data centers operating worldwide

+20more under construction

0MWh of electricity used since AI data centers came online (2023)

0gallons of water used for cooling since 2023

0metric tons of CO₂ released making that power since 2023

5%AI Takeover Meter. Median chance AI researchers give that AI leads to human extinction or permanent loss of control. Their average answer: 16% (tick mark).

Put another way Since 2023, enough electricity to power millions of US homes for a year.

What's coming Data centers used 4.4% of all US electricity in 2023. The Energy Department says that could nearly triple, to as much as 12%, by 2028. If every AI campus on this map is built, they would draw about 194 GW, roughly 15× what runs today.

See all comparisons and sources

Electricity

0 US homes could run for a whole year on what's been used since 2023

Every hour, these data centers use as much electricity as one home uses in about 1,200 years.

Running nonstop, they draw as much power as 10 million homes all day, every day.

Water

0 Olympic swimming pools

0 lifetimes of one American's water use at home

Every day: about 31 million gallons, enough for 13 people's entire lifetime of home water use.

Carbon

0 cars driven for a whole year

0 Americans' total carbon footprint for a year

Every day: the same CO₂ as about 25,000 cars driven for a full year.

Last updated Oct 19, 2026. Counts: largest sites tracked by Epoch AI; the real total is higher. Counters are running totals since the first big AI campuses came online in April 2023, and are estimates: each operating campus is assumed to have ramped up steadily from its first operating date (Epoch AI; campuses with no published date use the median date), scaled to the worldwide total, and today they add 18.5 GW of facility power at about 70% use, with US-average rates for cooling water (Berkeley Lab) and CO₂ (EIA). Comparisons use US averages: 10,791 kWh of electricity per home per year (EIA), 82 gallons of water per person per day at home (EPA) over a 79-year life (CDC), 4.6 metric tons of CO₂ per car per year (EPA), 14.2 metric tons per American per year (Our World in Data), and 660,000 gallons per Olympic pool. Growth outlook: US Department of Energy / Berkeley Lab (DOE, Dec 2024); planned capacity is the sum of announced projects on this map, many of which may change or never be built. Takeover meter: 2023 survey of 2,778 AI researchers (AI Impacts, via IEEE Spectrum); estimates vary widely, from near zero to over 50%.

Data Center Locations

Red: AI, operating · Yellow: AI, being built · Orange: regular data centers · Click any dot

US AI Data Center Map

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Red and yellow dots are large AI data center campuses. Orange dots are about 1,200 regular data center buildings listed in PeeringDB, mostly shared “colocation” and internet-exchange sites. Big tech companies' private buildings are often not listed, and the US has about 3,500 data centers in all (ElectricChoice). Distances are approximate. Data: Epoch AI (CC-BY) and public project announcements, linked on each site. Download the data.