# Why AI Data Centers Have a Water Problem: Stanford's Newsha Ajami

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/liquid-assets-6572676/why-ai-data-centers-have-a-water-problem-stanford-s-newsha-ajami
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/liquid-assets-6572676/why-ai-data-centers-have-a-water-problem-stanford-s-newsha-ajami.md
Podcast: [Liquid Assets](https://stenobird.com/podcast/liquid-assets-6572676)
Published: 2026-06-19T17:49:42+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ravi-kurani/episodes/Why-AI-Data-Centers-Have-a-Water-Problem-Stanfords-Newsha-Ajami-e3l0nti
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/dc2b3d10/podcast/play/121707890/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-19%2F426453787-44100-2-5900595e8f1de.mp3
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Duration seconds: 2668

## Resource

Every time you ask ChatGPT a question, a data center somewhere uses water to cool its servers. Most people have no idea, and neither do the utilities supplying that water. Newsha Ajami, a hydrologist and founding director of Stanford's Governance for Risk, Resilience, Recovery Program (GR3), has spent years tracing water through the hidden seams of the economy, from the electricity charging your phone to the chips powering the AI boom. The U.S. still has no national water strategy, and emerging technologies are arriving faster than the water systems built to serve them.What we cover:- Water's hidden footprint in nearly every product and service, from gas and lithium extraction to electricity generation to data storage- Why the U.S. has no unified federal water mission, and how the Colorado River makes that problem impossible to ignore- The six-pillar national water strategy framework Ajami co-led through the Aspen Institute's National Water Strategy Initiative, two years in the making- How states are welcoming hyperscale data centers for jobs and tax revenue without tying those decisions to water or energy availability, leaving small utilities unprepared- Why standardized water disclosure and a new utility business model, more like a service plan than a metered drip, could unlock the sector the way transparency unlocked startup financeNewsha Ajami is the founding director of the Governance for Risk, Resilience, Recovery Program (GR3) at Stanford's Doerr School of Sustainability, and a commissioner at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/newsha-ajami-phd/Book rec: Newsha recommended Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (2021), a novel weaving three storylines across radically different eras, including one…

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