California has enacted sweeping legislation requiring data centre operators to dramatically increase transparency regarding their water and electricity consumption, with new rules mandating local community involvement in facility planning and requiring companies to bear costs for grid infrastructure, power generation, and wildfire mitigation. This regulatory shift represents a significant tightening of oversight around the resource consumption of data centres, particularly those powered by artificial intelligence workloads.

In response to mounting scrutiny over water use in arid regions, Amazon announced a $20 million commitment to conservation projects across the Colorado River Basin and pledged to help mobilise $100 million in total investment over two years. The initiative targets the river system that supplies 40 million people and reflects growing pressure on technology companies to address the environmental impact of data centre expansion.