"Despite reported internal forecasts showing sharply higher water use by 2030, Microsoft continues to splash cash on new AI bit barns. The technology giant has been given approval to build 15 more server farms at Mount Pleasant in Wisconsin, reports say, near its existing AI datacenter campus, which Microsoft has said is on track to come online in 2026 and has billed as "the world's most powerful AI datacenter.""
"Elsewhere, the company has also disclosed plans to spend $30 billion expanding AI datacenters in the UK between 2025 and 2028, alongside a separate $10 billion investment in Portugal, saying it expects to more than double its datacenter capacity across 16 European countries by 2027, all to boost its ability to support AI workloads. But all this comes at an environmental cost, as reported before, in terms of pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and water consumption."
Datacenters consume large volumes of water for cooling, creating strains on local water supplies. Microsoft received approval to build 15 additional server farms at Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, adjacent to its existing AI datacenter campus slated to come online in 2026. The Mount Pleasant expansion is expected to exceed $13 billion across two nearby sites. Microsoft also disclosed plans to invest $30 billion in UK AI datacenters between 2025 and 2028 and $10 billion in Portugal, aiming to more than double capacity across 16 European countries by 2027. The rapid build-out has raised environmental concerns: Microsoft reported emissions about 30 percent above a 2020 baseline, observers cite pollution and water consumption impacts, and more than 230 organizations called for a moratorium on datacenter construction. Reports indicate forecasts of future annual water needs for roughly 100 campuses.
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