Google, TCS and the physics of large data center air cooling | Explained

Close encounters: Amazon Web Services data center adjacent to single-family homes in Stone Ridge, Virginia, USA | Photo credit: AFP

Story so far: After sustained local protests and pressure from civil society groups, Google has reportedly said its planned 1 GW data center in Visakhapatnam district will use air-cooling technology to cool its servers. Although air cooling requires less water, it has its own trade-offs.

A large data center will have several million processors, each with billions of transistors. Each transistor manipulates the electrical current flowing through it to perform operations on data. The resistance that the transistor material offers to the flow of current will release some heat in the process, as will the charging and discharging of transistors. In trillions of transistors, the amount of heat generated in this way can be considerable.

Published – September 6, 2026 12:11 PM IST