Residents of both parties in Arizona are fighting new AI data centers, worried about water in a drought-stricken state, even though they welcomed TSMC's chip plants.
Arizona welcomed the world's biggest chip maker with open arms. Now it is pushing back on AI data centers. A grassroots group of residents from both political parties has formed against newer, larger projects planned from Phoenix to Tucson. Their main worry is the same one that has shaped Arizona for generations: there is not enough water.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, known as TSMC, makes microchips. It announced a Phoenix factory in 2020, and the city's economic development office had worked to land it. The company first predicted $12 billion in spending in Arizona by 2029. That projection has grown to $265 billion. A second factory is finished, a third is being built, and more are planned. The plant uses nearly 5 million gallons of city water a day.
Data centers are buildings full of computers that run apps, search and chatbots. Arizona already has 172 of them, and the first wave drew little opposition. The new proposals are bigger and demand more water, more power and more land. Residents have attended city council meetings in large numbers, and some have taught themselves zoning, land use and water rules to understand the projects.
Developers promise jobs, tax revenue and infrastructure. They also say their water use is modest. One example cited is a Google data center in The Dalles, Oregon, which uses about 1.5 million gallons a day, roughly one-third of TSMC's Arizona use. Those assurances have not won over many Arizonans.
Arizona will soon lose access to nearly 30 percent of the water it gets from the Colorado River. That makes every large new user of water a harder sell. Both sides say they want a more prosperous Arizona. They disagree on how to get there.
Fights like this could affect where AI services get built. They may also affect what nearby communities and utility systems have to carry. Water and power are shared resources, so a big new user can become a local political issue quickly.
The available material does not say how much water each proposed Arizona data center would use. It also does not say which projects will be approved, changed or stopped. The outcome of the local fights is still open.
Water and power limits are turning AI data centers into local political fights, and Arizona is showing how quickly support can fade.
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