In 2025, global data centers consumed a total of 4.5 trillion liters of water. By 2027, AI-driven data centers could consume approximately 6.4 trillion liters of water annually; by 2030, this figure is projected to climb to 9.3 trillion liters, potentially exceeding the drinking water consumption of the entire global population. A 15 MW medium-sized data center consumes as much water daily as three hospitals or two golf courses use in a year. Training GPT-3 alone directly consumed 700,000 liters of purified water, and ChatGPT drinks a 500 ml bottle of drinking water for every 20 to 50 queries.

Water is becoming the invisible ceiling constraining data center expansion. Johor, Malaysia has halted approvals for lower-tier data center applications as high water consumption strains local water supplies -- some lower-tier data centers can use up to 50 million liters of water per day. China's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other emerging data center hubs face the acute contradiction between water supply and computing power expansion. Governments across regions are introducing policies mandating water-saving cooling technologies.

Facing this global water crisis, data center cooling and water reuse solutions centered on water cooling and cold plate technologies are moving from the periphery to the core of strategic planning.

I. Water Cooling Technology: Highly Efficient Heat Dissipation with Dramatic Water Savings

Traditional data centers rely on evaporative air-cooling technology, with some facilities consuming hundreds of millions of gallons of water annually. Water cooling technology's core advantage is that cooling water is injected once into sealed pipelines during construction and continuously circulates throughout the facility's lifecycle, eliminating constant freshwater replenishment.

Microsoft's next-generation data center design employs chip-level cooling through a closed-loop water circulation system, projected to save over 125 million liters of water per data center annually. NVIDIA's warm water closed cooling system uses a closed-loop design -- cooling water enters server racks at approximately 45 degrees C, absorbs heat and returns at approximately 55 degrees C, then passes through external heat dissipation units for cooling before re-entering the system. This reduces operational water use to near zero. Intelligent water management systems can achieve 25% water savings.

II. Cold Plate Technology: Precision Cooling Direct-to-Chip

Precision-machined metal cold plates are directly attached to CPUs and GPUs, with internal microchannels allowing coolant to flow across chip surfaces, capturing heat directly at the source. NVIDIA Rubin platform's cold plate solution uses a coolant of 75% water and 25% propylene glycol, dramatically optimizing heat dissipation efficiency, reducing data center PUE from 1.35 to 1.15 with annual cooling water consumption near zero. Cold plate liquid cooling can achieve up to 60% energy savings while reducing water consumption by up to 60%.

III. Water Reuse: From Single-Use to Cascaded Recycling

Beyond closed-loop cooling, data centers can reuse treated municipal wastewater and industrial effluent. Johor, Malaysia has built the nation's first large-scale reclaimed water supply plant dedicated to data center cooling, with 4,000 cubic meters per day treatment capacity. The data-water symbiosis model is even more innovative -- data centers need cold sources, and municipal wastewater treatment plants discharge large volumes of reclaimed water that precisely serve as a super cold source replacing freshwater. Meanwhile, residual heat from data center return water can be recycled within wastewater plants. Implementing circulating water management strategies can reduce data center water consumption by 75%.

IV. Hong Kong Tianyi Limited: Empowering Global Green Data Centers

Amid this technological wave, Hong Kong Tianyi Limited is leveraging its professional water treatment capabilities to deliver end-to-end water reuse solutions for the global data center industry.

As a water treatment technology enterprise headquartered in Hong Kong with operations spanning Mainland China and global markets, Tianyi deeply understands the common challenges data centers face in water resource management -- from China's Eastern Data, Western Computing hub nodes to water-scarce Southeast Asia and zero liquid discharge facilities in the Middle East, efficient water reuse systems are essential. The company focuses on two core business directions:

Wastewater Reuse and Reclaimed Water Treatment. Tianyi's wastewater reuse treatment systems employ membrane separation, advanced oxidation and other processes to treat cooling system discharge water, rainwater and municipal reclaimed water to data center cooling water standards, achieving cascaded utilization of water resources. The company's proprietary membrane-based salt separation and evaporation crystallization technologies enable efficient volume reduction and resource recovery from high-salinity wastewater, achieving near-zero liquid discharge.

Intelligent Water Management Systems. Tianyi's self-developed smart water monitoring platform, based on wireless sensors and IoT technology, enables real-time collection, intelligent analysis and anomaly alerts of data center water usage data. The system supports remote valve control and water leakage emergency response, helping operators precisely track water flow and consumption. Through integration with cold plate systems, the system dynamically adjusts coolant flow and temperature based on real-time chip loads, achieving minimum water consumption while ensuring heat dissipation effectiveness.

From the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to Southeast Asia, from the Middle East to North America, global data center construction is welcoming a new wave of expansion. Hong Kong Tianyi Limited is committed to helping the data center industry achieve the leap from high water consumption to intelligent water utilization -- ensuring every drop of water delivers maximum value in the era of computing power, and safeguarding the green digital infrastructure of clients across Mainland China, Hong Kong and globally.