Sam Altman rejects claims ChatGPT uses large amounts of water and calls for clean energy
Feb 23rd 2026
At an Indian Express event during an AI summit in India, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said internet claims that each ChatGPT query uses large amounts of water are false, acknowledged past water use for evaporative cooling, and warned that total AI energy demand requires faster deployment of nuclear and renewables.
- Altman said claims that each ChatGPT query uses large amounts of water are "completely untrue".
- He acknowledged evaporative cooling once used water in data centers but said that practice is no longer common.
- Altman said total energy consumption from rising AI use is a legitimate concern.
- He urged rapid expansion of nuclear, wind, and solar power to meet AI energy needs.
- Altman disputed a claim that one ChatGPT query equals 1.5 iPhone battery charges and said it is far lower.
- He called comparisons of training energy to per-query inference energy unfair.
- There is no legal requirement for tech companies to disclose their energy or water use, so independent researchers study it.
- The water and energy portion of the interview begins at about 26 minutes and 35 seconds into the video.