Data Centers: What’s the Deal?
Answering your most-asked questions with a crossword on the side and extra whipped cream on top.
Data Centers: What’s the Deal?
Read Time: 5 min 0 sec | Listen to Podcast | Watch on YouTube
─────── November 7, 2026 ───────
Happy Saturday!
Democrats will have the new majority in Congress, but AI is on everyone’s mind. And data centers are often at the center of debates, with leaders from both parties having called for pausing data center construction… It all got us thinking: “What are data centers?” “How do they work?” and “Why’re they so thirsty?”
Let’s take a li’l data dive.
New here? TPO Explains does a shallow dive into your most-asked questions every Saturday.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We can control a few things: our attitude, our effort, our focus, and how we go about treating .”
Tim Tebow
BREWING QUESTIONS
WHAT YOU’RE ASKING
What even is a data center?
It’s a house for (lots and lots of) computers. Data centers store, process, and manage the digital information behind websites, apps, and cloud services.
When you Google something, there are no magic sparks inside your phone. Your search pings a data center where a computer does the work, then zips the answer back in a fraction of a second. It’s the same thing with saving a doc to the cloud: it lives on a computer in a data center, not your laptop.
Data centers date back to the 1940s, when room-sized computers crunched numbers for the Army.
Wait, then why’re we just now hearing about them?
Short answer (literally): AI.
Data centers come in all shapes and sizes. The IT room in a hospital with a bunch of blinking computer boxes? That’s a data center! A small, on-site “enterprise” one. The huge buildings with rows and rows of tall metal cabinets humming, blinking, and surrounded by wires are hyperscale centers, used by companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon… and used to power AI.
Enter: the headlines.
AI requires an extraordinary amount of computing power, and the centers used to power AI put the hyper in hyperscale. They’re bigger, hotter (we’ll get to that), and more power-hungry than traditional centers. A typical AI data center uses as much electricity as ~100,000 homes, and newer ones could use 20x that.
In 2023, data centers made up 4.4% of U.S. electricity use, using about as much electricity annually as the entire UAE.
What’s the thing with AI data centers and water?
They be thirsty.
Traditional data centers are built with special fans and A/C to keep their computers from overheating, but AI data centers run even hotter, so many companies turn to water to indirectly cool them.
Similar to how your body sweats to cool itself off, water is used to absorb heat in the room. As it evaporates, it takes some of the heat with it. Unevaporated, cooled water can get cycled back through, but the system gets topped off by local water supplies.
A large data center using this method can consume up to 5 million gallons/day, roughly 7.5 Olympic-size pools or the home water use of a town of 10-50k people. Others use closed-loop cooling systems, which use less water but require more energy.
Critics say data centers strain water supplies in drought-stricken places (e.g., Utah) and drive up power bills while creating few permanent jobs. Supporters point to tax revenue, improving cooling systems, and the U.S.’s need not to fall behind in the AI race.
How do I know if I have a data center near me?
You probably do, but if you wanna check, here’s a map.
CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
Whether you’re thrilled by innovation or intimidated by new threats, live with joy and pursue holiness because believers already know how this story ends. Technology will never outsmart God or thwart His plan to renew and glorify all who are in Christ.
“But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight, at peace.”
2 Peter 3:13-14 (CSB) (read full passage)
FROM OUR PARTNERS 🤠
New Year, New Needs, New Prayers
First and foremost, persecuted Christians yearn for us to pray for them.
This year, God has worked through the prayers and generosity of TPO readers like you to encourage these believers. But their needs won’t stop when the ball drops next month. A new year brings new prayer requests from Christians in hostile areas and restricted nations.
Join us in lifting them up as we pray through The Voice of the Martyrs’ 2027 Prayer Calendar. Each day highlights a specific request to help build rhythms around intercession. As you map out the year ahead, why not include praying for the persecuted in your plan?
TPO readers get a free physical Prayer Calendar. Request yours today!
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HOUSE BLEND
WHAT YOU’LL ENJOY
Solving this week’s mini crossword puzzle!
Whipped Cream on Top: This is bloomin' beautiful…
This book for your deepest questions about suffering. The God Who Helps was written by TPO reader and pastor Drew Stevenson as he walked through the wilderness of his newborn’s sickness and his mother’s shocking car accident. With aching questions, Drew turned to Lazarus’s story and found a Savior who weeps with the hurting, even while holding the power to end their pain. If you or someone you love is suffering, this is honest, hopeful company. Grab a copy here!*
*This is a free promo for a TPO-reader-owned small biz. Have your own small business you want us to know about? Fill out this form!
WHAT YOU’VE BEAN CLICKING…
Top News Link: British adventurer Karl Bushby completed his 28-year walk around the world this week, and we mapped out his journey for you here!
Top Christian Perspective: A verse to consider when you’re feeling on edge. Download and save it here.
Top Whipped Cream: Just me and the besties headed to get some coffee…
TAKE IT TO GO
WHAT WE’RE RECOMMENDING
What We Trust
The New Living Translation*
What do you look for in a Bible translation? Do you look for accuracy, understandability, and enjoyability? If you said yes, then you’re looking for the New Living Translation.
The NLT has been translated by over 100 biblical scholars, the kind of people who check off “detail-oriented” on a resume and love the nitty-gritty. Translation (pun intended): exactly who you want translating your Bible. They care about things like original language nuances and how it sounds when read aloud (just like the original authors would have).
Enjoy reading God’s Word with a translation you can trust. Get a New Living Translation Bible today.
*From our partners
WHAT WE’RE PRAYING
Prayer “When Artificial Intelligence Is in the News” from TPO’s book Praying the News
All Powerful God, thank You for the ways that these tools have offered genuine repair to Your ruptured world. For laborers freed from dehumanizing toil to focus on the ennobling work only humans can do, we say thank You, God. For the suffering patient too far from any specialist, finally seen and known, we say thank You, God. For the eager learner born without open doors to knowledge now welcomed at wisdom’s table, we say thank You, God. May this flourishing be felt across race, class, creed, and station. But, O God, protect us.
As our appetites for speed, power, and abundance starve and scar what You love—water consumed, habitats broken, image bearers sacrificed on efficiency’s altar—deliver us from calling our exploitation “good.” O Wise One, turn our creation into redemption. Amen.
LEARN WITH US
Each week, we do the deep shallow dive so that you don’t have to. We bring what we learn not only to this email, but we sit down in the office and talk about it, too. Check out this week’s episode of TPO Explains... just click on the episode below.
