A Startup Has a Plan to Make Water From Air Using Data Centers’ Waste Heat
Startup Atoco is developing technology that uses metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to harvest water from the air using waste heat. By integrating this system with AI data centers, the company aims to solve water scarcity while repurposing the heat generated by server farms.
Why it matters
This innovation addresses the dual challenges of the massive water consumption of AI infrastructure and the urgent need for sustainable water sources in arid regions.
The temperature is already over 80 degrees Fahrenheit as the sun rises on a 20-foot-tall, metal-clad machine in the parking lot of Atoco, an Irvine, California-based startup. Engineers open panels to check systems and an iPad that shows a steadily ascending line that reveals the device’s purpose: harvesting water from thin air using special materials known as metal organic frameworks, or MOFs.
The materials won Omar Yaghi, the company’s founder, the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2025, and Atoco has shown they work in prototypes capable of producing gallons of water per day. What’s unique about this iteration of Atoco’s technology is what it doesn’t require. No grid connection or even electricity is needed to grab water from the air at the microscopic level, nor is it required to in turn wring the water out of the materials in a form useful for humans.
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