Amazon says its data centers use water more efficiently than the industry average and is urging others to improve as scrutiny of data centers intensifies.

Why it matters: Water use has emerged as one of the biggest pressure points in the AI data center buildout, pushing companies like Amazon to publicly defend their efforts.

Driving the news: Amazon revealed today it was 75% of the way toward its 2030 goal — first set in 2022 — to replenish more water into communities with its data centers than it's consuming.

• The tech giant also said its data centers are seven times more water-efficient than the industry average.

Friction point: Roughly 70% of Americans oppose building data centers in their communities, with water use for cooling and other environmental concerns ranking as the top reason, according to Gallup polling released in May.

State of play: Amazon's announcement — following a similar water-focused push from Google last week — shows how major tech companies are increasingly trying to address public concern over the environmental toll of the AI buildout.

• "There is a perception, perhaps, that the data centers are taking more water than people understand," said Kara Hurst, chief sustainability officer at Amazon, in an interview. "I do think it's incredibly important that we are transparent."
• Hurst said it should be a "race to the top" with efficient water use across the industry.

The fine print: Amazon's "industry average" is not a directly reported industry benchmark. It's based on a January academic study and converted using a standard Energy Department methodology.

Between the lines: Hurst made an argument that Google executives also made last week: data centers use far less water compared to other industries, including agriculture and household lawn watering.

Reality check: Comparisons to other industries may do little to ease concerns in communities facing a rapid influx of large data center projects.

• Hurst acknowledged that Amazon is planning for more growth overall.
• "We are growing," Hurst said. "We want it to be good growth, sustainable growth."

Case in point: In Northern Virginia, one of its largest data center regions, the company said it reduced water use by 42% in 2025 compared to 2024, "even as demand for computing continued to grow."

How it works: Data centers must continuously remove heat generated by computing equipment, including from the chips and the building itself.

• Amazon says it relies heavily on "free-air" cooling, which uses outside air when conditions allow and reduces the need for water-intensive cooling.

What we're watching: The key question is whether efficiency gains can offset overall growth. Even as companies reduce water use per unit of computing, total demand for AI infrastructure continues to surge.

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🤷 The market is shrugging off the latest escalation — so far — with crude prices rising modestly after the U.S. struck Iran last night and then falling back.

The latest: The global benchmark Brent crude is up less than 1% to $93.45 this morning.

What they're saying: "[W]e believe oil and gas markets are being too complacent, and see significant upside in the absence of a quick resolution," ING's Warren Patterson said in a note.

Friction point: Oil execs have warned the White House that pump prices could "surge in coming months as fuel inventories fall to critical lows, complicating the Trump administration's efforts to contain inflation," the Washington Post reports this morning.

The intrigue: One wild card is how much oil is moving through the Strait of Hormuz under U.S. protection.

• "A growing number of ships are escaping the Strait of Hormuz using a risky route close to Oman's coastline that shipping executives have warned could result in a collision," the Financial Times reports.

The big picture: Patterson's analysis nicely captures the race against time, with shock absorbers like China lowering imports and rising U.S. exports on one side and declining inventories on the other.

What we're watching: "From an inventory perspective, we believe that the end of July could be an inflection point for the market if there is no improvement in energy flows from the Persian Gulf," he writes.

🌎 Switching hemispheres for a moment, U.S. oilfield services giant SLB announced an agreement with Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA to "support the revitalization and modernization of Venezuela's oil and gas sector."

☀️ Qcells has begun manufacturing solar cells at its factory in Cartersville, Georgia, it announced yesterday.

• Why it matters: It marks a major addition to the domestic supply chain. The expanded product output there means it's the "only vertically integrated solar manufacturing plant" in the U.S., Qcells said. Canary Media has more.

🖥️ Shares of ERock fell 12.8% yesterday in the first day of trading after the distributed gas generator firm raised $600 million in its IPO.

• Why it matters: The IPO helped the company compete to provide Big Tech with the AI power it needs quickly, CEO John Carrington said in an interview.
• The big picture: "We didn't want the balance sheet to be a perceived weakness based upon everything else that we have that's so positive, so we felt like this was the right approach," he said.
• The intrigue: Carrington said he has recently added people to the sales team that have either worked for or with hyperscalers.
• The bottom line: The company has multiple product lines, but the data center boom is clearly a top priority for the firm that has already disclosed work with Microsoft and Meta.

🤝 Distributed energy firm Voltus is acquiring battery storage developer Brightfield AI, the companies announced. Terms were not disclosed.

• Catch up quick: It comes a week after Voltus announced a deal with Google to provide up to 100 megawatts of resources like battery storage and smart thermostats into the huge PJM grid region. Latitude Media has more.

🔋 Panasonic announced this week that it's planning mass production of battery cells ​for data center applications at its existing plant in Kansas.

• Why it matters: It's the latest sign of a wider shift as electric vehicle battery makers tap the market for powering the AI boom.
• Go deeper: Investor deck ... Reuters coverage

Nuclear startup Antares' advanced reactor, Mark-0, hit criticality this month at Idaho National Laboratory, meaning it reached a self-sustaining chain reaction.

• Another chain reaction within the national security community quickly followed.

Why it matters: Today's battlefields and bases are rife with energy hogs. Drone batteries need charging; computers and servers and networks and radars need to stay online.

• Now imagine tomorrow.
• Nuclear power of all shapes and sizes could ease the burden.

Driving the news: Antares was the first of 10 companies tapped for the Energy Department's Reactor Pilot Program to run through the tape. (Valar Atomics, another entrant, in February had a reactor airlifted on C-17s.)

• "We're months to years out from being able to start deploying this technology to military installations," CEO Jordan Bramble told reporters.

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That's how much the Earth has warmed relative to preindustrial levels in 2025, a major new scientific paper finds.

Why it matters: A key goal of the Paris Agreement — holding that increase to 1.5°C — won't be met.

• "[B]ased on the current assessed level and rate of warming, human-induced warming will reach 1.5 °C around the year 2030," the study in Earth System Science Data states.