Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy · Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Sam Altman addressed concerns about data centers, stating that modern facilities use as much water as an office building for kitchens and bathrooms due to closed-loop cooling systems. He also highlighted a shift towards solar and nuclear energy sources for powering these centers.
“Unlike power plants, we could put a data center anywhere. We should just go put it in the desert around no one where no one wants to be.”
“For example, years ago, we were evaporating water to cool these systems and they needed tremendous amounts of water. And now we use these closed loop systems and a modern data center uses only as much water as an office building would use for the kitchen and the bathrooms.”
“On power, we are moving from energy sources that are burning fossil fuels to systems that are going to be powered by solar and nuclear.”