A proposed 330-megawatt AI data centre in California promised not to use Colorado River water. Now it wants 260 million gallons a year

The AI boom is spreading data centres across the world faster than most tech projects. These AI lifelines work on two important resources, water and electricity, which they use from the areas they are located in. Often this leads to a fight between the locals and the tech giant owning the data centre since resources are limited and want is not.Case in point is an AI data centre being built in Southern California's Imperial Valley. Deemed as the largest AI data centre in the state, the 330-megawatt unit earlier promised to not use water from Colorado River. But now, the developer behind the project is suing for access to the river water which is already a threatened source of freshwater for 40 million people and the centre of countless disputes over water use in West. The Colorado River is the only source of freshwater in the Imperial Valley, which has long faced drought and water supply issues. It is also the largest user of the water in the seven states that rely on the river. Farmers use about 80% of the state’s full allocation.The lawsuit, filed in June 2026 by Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing, says the company needs access to 287 million gallons of water for the data cent...