AI Data Center Map: Find Projects and Ask About Water Use

If a data center is being built near you, the questions are fairly straightforward. Who is behind it? Has construction started? How much water will it need? Finding a clear answer, with a source you can actually check, can take longer than it should.

We built the AI Infrastructure Atlas to put project information and its sources in one place. You can browse a map, search for a location or owner, open a project page, and follow the evidence behind the record. You can also suggest a missing data center or use a draft request to ask an operator about water use.

What is on the data center map?

At launch, using our September 15, 2026 snapshot, the atlas contains 103 project records across 17 countries. That includes 86 major AI facilities from Epoch AI's data center dataset and 17 additional European records compiled from official operator pages. Epoch AI provides the initial research dataset; we credit and link to it on the atlas.

Search by project name, city, country or owner. The filters let you narrow the selection by status, region and whether a record covers an AI facility or a general data center. Each project page brings together the available timeline, capacity estimates and source links.

Some locations are approximate locality markers rather than verified facility boundaries. A record can also appear in the list without a map pin when we do not have verified coordinates. Check the location note before treating a marker as an exact address.

Finding data centers in Europe and the Netherlands

The atlas has separate Europe and European Union filters. Our launch selection includes 17 EU records, with five in the Netherlands. You can start with Google Eemshaven or the Microsoft Middenmeer campus to see how the project pages work.

European coverage still needs work. The added records are concentrated on Google locations, alongside Microsoft Middenmeer. They are a starting selection, not a count of all the data centers operating in Europe. A blank area on the map does not mean there are no facilities there.

We also distinguish general data centers from confirmed AI facilities. A location in Google's data center directory does not, by itself, tell us which AI workloads run there. The added European records carry that uncertainty explicitly.

How to read the energy and water information

Look at the label beside a number before comparing projects. The Epoch-derived megawatt figures in the atlas are estimates of IT power capacity. They exclude cooling and other facility overhead, and they are not measured annual electricity consumption. A capacity figure alone cannot tell you how much electricity a site used last year.

Water data is less complete. We have not populated site water-use measurements in this first release. Some pages include an operator's statement about cooling or water sources, attributed to the original page. That statement is useful context, but it does not establish a site's annual water consumption. An unknown value should stay unknown.

Project status needs the same care. “In development” does not establish that a project has a permit or that construction has begun. The project page explains the basis for the status where available. Read the source and its date, especially if you are looking at a project that may have changed since our snapshot.

Ask an operator about water use

Each project page includes a water-information request that you can read, edit and copy. Where we have a published contact email, you can open the request in your email app. The atlas does not send it for you. Where no contact is verified, use the linked official sources to find an appropriate channel.

The draft asks for information tied to the specific project:

• Annual water withdrawal and consumption, including units and the reporting period.
• Water sources, cooling method and seasonal or peak-day demand.
• How the site manages water demand during drought or supply restrictions.
• Links to water permits, environmental assessments and monitoring reports.

For a planned facility, ask for projected figures and the assumptions behind them. For an operating site, ask whether the figures are measured and whether they cover the whole campus or only part of it. You can try the draft on the Eemshaven project page.

Know a project we have missed?

You can submit a new project, a correction or a local concern through the atlas. Include a source link and explain what it supports. A planning document, an operator announcement or a local news report can give us something concrete to check. If you receive a publicly shareable response from an operator, that can help too.

Submissions enter a private review queue. They do not appear on the map automatically. Please leave out personal information and link to the original document where possible.

There are plenty of gaps to fill, particularly outside the initial selection of large AI sites and Google locations. If you know your area well, a single sourced correction can make its project record more useful to the next person who looks it up.