Datacenters didn't need water cooling before the AI explosion. (Air cooling was still possible)

At first, DW's estimate was one drop of potable water was consumed for each query (normal queries, not more expensive ones)

The Google, I don't know who allowed the sincerity, God bless him, released a first hand analysis of their water consumption, and it is higher that the one drop estimate: 5 drops

https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/measuring_the_envi...