Liquid Death and Garage Beer monetize data center water anxiety

Liquid Death, the canned water company, and Garage Beer are running a campaign built on a claim: AI data centers waste water. Their music video features former NFL player and Garage Beer co-founder Jason Kelce asking people to urinate on computers. A limited-edition glass mug, billed as a 'data center coolant collector,' has already sold out, Data Center Dynamics reports. 'AI data centers waste millions of gallons of water,' Kelce says in the video. 'We want your pee to cool these data centers.'

Polaroid billboards in June told people to 'go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up.' The new campaign takes the same complaint from utility-commission filings to mass-market advertising. It arrives alongside a broader anti-data-center movement already complicating state permitting; Pennsylvania this month pulled AI data centers off the fast track.

The technical debate is more measured than the marketing. Data centers used 17.4 billion gallons of water in 2023, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. That is a fraction of the 200 billion gallons that go to swimming pools. It is also a fraction of the 476 billion gallons spread on golf courses. Newer AI facilities increasingly use closed-loop cooling; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella claimed in June that one data center uses about as much water as a single restaurant. AWS used 2.5 billion gallons across its global data centers in 2025, the company reported. The totals are relatively small; the conflicts are local.

For investors underwriting data center buildout, water has become a consumer issue, not just a utility negotiation. Developers are already paying to address it. Google's $15 billion Oklahoma project includes water-line upgrades for a rural water district. A sold-out mug alone will not slow a buildout, but the sentiment this campaign monetizes could.