OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said 38,000 ChatGPT queries use only as much water as it takes to produce a single almond – shrugging off widespread concerns over data centers’ water usage.
The billionaire tech leader was discussing rampant backlash online against AI companies during an appearance on a Tuesday episode of the new “Sources” podcast with host Alex Heath.
“You know, I saw this thing going around about the water usage of ChatGPT. And it was like, every time you run a simple ChatGPT query, it’s like you run your shower for like six hours and the water never comes back and just it’s done,” Altman said.
He added that the same amount of water used in the production of a single almond in California can power 38,000 ChatGPT queries, though he noted he did not have the exact calculations on-hand.
“There’s a question of like where this came from because the people scarfing down 12 almonds at a time don’t feel like they’re doing something horrible from a water perspective, for the most part,” Altman continued.
“It is true that data centers at one point used evaporative cooling, but they have not done that in a long time. Like if you look at a modern, very large data center, it uses, like, the equivalent amount of water as an office building in terms of people, you know, running the sinks and the toilets and whatever.”
He said complaints of data center water usage online have been a “robust meme” – but argued they don’t “[hold] up to any scrutiny.”
Almonds are widely viewed as one of the most water-intensive crops to grow in the US, especially in California, a state prone to droughts.
A single almond takes approximately 1 gallon of water to produce, though that’s from start to finish – including the planting and growth of the entire tree, according to the Almond Board of California.
It’s similar to the amount of water needed to grow other California fruit and nut trees, like pistachios, walnuts and peaches, the nonprofit industry group said.
The crunchy snack is a fairly popular choice for Americans, with the average person consuming 2.3 pounds of almonds annually.
Altman has previously said that a single ChatGPT query requires 0.3 milliliters of water, or about 1/15 of a teaspoon. There are 3,785.41 milliliters in a gallon – so it’s actually more like 3,800 ChatGPT queries have the equivalent water usage to an almond.
An OpenAI spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
It’s possible that Altman’s 0.3 milliliter estimate of water usage is outdated, and it could be referencing a time when the data centers did use evaporative cooling – a method of lowering the temperature by releasing cool water vapor.
Meanwhile, ChatGPT is only growing in popularity. As of last summer, OpenAI said the chatbot was receiving 2.5 billion user prompts a day.
OpenAI and other tech firms have also been focused on building more AI agents, which require a lot more juice than chatbots. AI agents can solve more complex software problems and are being used at companies across a slew of industries, including tech, finance and retail.
Neighborhoods around the country have been revolting against the rapid buildout of massive, power-hungry data centers – complaining of noise, light and water pollution, and fearful that the rise of AI could eradicate jobs.
On Monday, President Trump urged the country to embrace data centers, arguing that communities who reject them will end up “backwards and poor.”
This spring, residents of Fayetteville, Ga., grew outraged after they discovered a new 6.6 million-square-foot data center had guzzled up 30 million gallons of water, leaving residents with weak water pressure during a drought.
In Morgan County, Ga., residents complained that a nearby Meta data center had tainted their water a muddy brown.
The water problem has reportedly only affected four homes in the area, not the entire neighborhood, so it’s possible it was a construction issue – not something specific to a data center.
