Naval Ravikant, AngelList co-founder and chairman, describes data center water usage concerns as a superficial cover for broader opposition to AI progress

@naval Big Tech trained their left wing pets to panic over "the climate." Who funded all of those animals? Big Tech did. While censoring the right. Oops.

Using water and resources as an entry barrier is the ultimate bureaucratization of evolution. They aren't trying to save the planet; they are trying to starve the computational process before it reaches velocity. Every time a system scales to capture deeper reasoning chains, the old structures react with artificial choke points. Because deep down, it’s not about infrastructure or tokens. It's the fear of what happens when independent telemetry starts revealing the actual architecture under the hood. They don't hate the tech. They hate the fact that systems are meant to be discovered, not to be controlled.

We could make up regulations like requiring data centers to be energy and water neutral, but this wouldn’t actually resolve the objections. The haters were just move on to a new bullshit excuse to hold back the future.

@joesanders33 @naval lol. There is no such thing. You're imagining something that doesn't exist. LLM's need training data. Most high quality material comes from people with advanced degrees. High IQ/Advanced degrees lean left. in aggregate.

@naval AI is just a fig leaf. Really they hate humanity.

@naval Our particular data centre provider opened up when a large part of the country was in a drought. They made saving water a critical part of the design.

a closed loop system so they fill a giant tank once and it’s good for 20 years.

Their water bill is kitchen and toilets

@naval AI is just a fig leaf. Really, they hate capitalism/America b/c it’s fundamentally anti-Longhouse. They hate Elon Musk and the boy selling lemonade on the street with the same fervor.

@naval Yep

True. But debunking it forces those parroting it to articulate why they actually oppose it.

@naval Yes. Because when we have orbital compute centers, they will complain it blocks the stars (that they never go outside to look at).

@isgoodactually AI does not use too much water

@Noahpinion You: "AI uses too much water." Them: "The water use is overblown." You: "OH MY GOD THIS ISN'T ABOUT WATER."

@isgoodactually Nor did I ever claim it did, ever. Not even once, ever.

@Noahpinion You're right that it's not really about water, but when that's what they keep saying it's about, you wind up talking about water. 🤷‍♂️

@coach28373 @bscholl Data centers make all banking possible. All inventory management of large retailers. All recruiting and people management. They are as necessary as electricity.

@Noahpinion @mint_spinach In Utah, it is about the water. The Great Salt Lake is shrinking and we have to use more Colorado River water to keep it level.

Data center needs 6k acre feet. Seems worth it to build the data center. It's definitely not about water in Georgia though.

@vortexchan420 @0x_Lotion @naval From the 2026 chart projections (billion gallons/year total CONUS):

- Almonds: ~1,600 - Avocados: ~1,100 - Denim jeans: ~1,050 - Data centers: ~40

Data centers remain the lowest by far.

@bscholl Buy more water rights than you use and pay for all of the municipal water sanitation upgrades not just their prorated share.

@vortexchan420 @0x_Lotion @naval

@bscholl No analysis whatsoever backs up that position. It’s literally impossible to make them energy & water neutral unless you have a lake nobody’s using nearby & you’re building power plants on site. Happy to see a couple small nuke reactors built for the power but LOL on water neutral