Greg Gutfeld took a shot at the anti-data center movement on Thursday, blasting concerns over extreme water use as bipartisan opposition to the technology, and therefore human progress, continues to gain steam.
.@greggutfeld debunks anti-AI data center narratives:
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) August 13, 2026
“They talk about water — ‘it uses so much water’ — almond orchards use 90 times more water in California alone than data centers do nationwide. The water used by data centers is non-potable, often recycled, and they’re… pic.twitter.com/Fz9Gvxp9kh
"They talk about water, it uses so much water. Almond orchards use 90 times more water in California alone than data centers do nationwide. The water used by data centers are non-potable," Gutfeld said. "Often recycled, constantly recycled throughout, and they're improving on it. It's not competing with drinking supplies the way agriculture or almonds do. So do not fall for this, and I'm telling you, all this sturm und drang...It's not going to matter. It's not going to matter because it's going to be just like the internet. You're going to have it wherever you go, and it's going to change your life."
Other concerns include electricity use, a supposed increase in utility costs, and declining surrounding home values, all claims current research has continued to debunk. Critics have also pointed to the humming data centers emit and made vague appeals to a coming surveillance state.
Gutfeld went on to argue that it is crucial to ensure the Left are not the ones controlling America's AI advancement.
.@greggutfeld stresses the importance of leveraging AI in the U.S.:
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) August 13, 2026
“We can’t let the Left do to AI what they did to nuclear power in the 1970s — they paralyzed an industry that could’ve prevented this cascade of global energy crises we’ve seen for 40 years… If you think we can… pic.twitter.com/RFr5AwdwTK
The backlash has become so broad and forceful that some have joked the opposition would be less fierce if these facilities were simply called “supercomputers.”
“Supercomputers” would not be an inaccurate description. A modern AI data center is not a simple warehouse that stores files; it houses thousands of interconnected, high-performance servers, that work together to process enormous quantities of data, train AI models, and deliver computing power at a scale no ordinary machine could. In practical terms, these facilities function as large, widely distributed supercomputers, the engine behind cloud services, advanced research, and artificial intelligence.
But still, the prevailing instinct has been to regulate data centers, and this new technology more broadly, based on what could happen, rather than on what the data supports or what is actually happening.
Once the debate is grounded in what is true, measurable, and supported by research, the choices we make can continue to lead toward prosperity. The discussion can then shift to narrower, practical questions: implementation, local impact, and genuine safeguards, without limiting America’s capacity to move forward.
Those questions matter, but they should refine progress, not become an excuse to stop it.
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