The company, which is owned by the private equity firm Blackstone, touts a “closed‑loop” cooling system, which it says does not consume water for cooling. Like a laptop or cellphone, the chips housed in data centers can easily overheat — generally requiring a lot of water to cool them.

The company said its water consumption was so high last year because of temporary construction-related activities, such as concrete work, dust control and site preparation.

I’ve never heard of water shortages due to construction needing so much. WTH are they doing on those sites if what Blackrock says is true?