ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Sai Abhideep Pundla has been awake since 3 a.m. After a red-eye flight from Las Vegas, where he briefed data center company executives and local government officials about the future of artificial intelligence, he’s back in a lab at UT-Arlington, tinkering with a prototype he thinks could solve one of the industry’s biggest challenges: how to keep data centers cool without draining finite water supplies.

Pundla, a doctoral candidate in engineering, is testing a system that cools the computer servers using a recirculating chemical refrigerant instead of water.

It’s a timely innovation. Texas is building dozens of massive data centers — some as large as New York’s Central Park — and experts say they’re expected to guzzle millions of gallons of water a year in a stat

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