Nicosia: Cyprus presents significant disadvantages for attracting large Artificial Intelligence Data Centers, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Cyprus Marios Dikaiakos, has said in an interview with CNA. These disadvantages, he pointed out, include, among others, the very high cost of electricity, high temperatures, the lack of water required for cooling the infrastructure, and the relatively high cost of land.
According to Cyprus News Agency, Dikaiakos said that today approximately 75% of the global computing power for Artificial Intelligence is located in the US, 12-15% in China, and only 5% in the European Union. He stressed that the concentration of AI data centers in the US and China creates severe technological, economic, and geopolitical imbalances, as access to computing power is becoming a critical factor in competitiveness and national sovereignty.
Noting that the expansion of Artificial Intelligence raises enormous challenges for the environment and the management of natural resources, he told CNA that there are data centers that will consume, on average, more electricity than the entire Republic of Cyprus. He also focused on the water footprint of AI, since water is essential for cooling AI computing infrastructures. By 2027, he stressed, global demand for AI is estimated to require 4.2-6.6 billion cubic meters of water per year, an amount greater than the total annual water extraction of 4-6 countries the size of Denmark.
The United States dominates the world in Artificial Intelligence infrastructures, hosting, according to recent studies, approximately 5,500 data centers, approximately ten times more than China, he told CNA. "It is estimated that today, approximately 75% of the global computing power for Artificial Intelligence is located in the US, 12-15% in China, and only 5% in the European Union," the Professor noted.
He also said that Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar) had announced ambitious investment plans for the installation of large AI centers in their territories, a development that due to the war in the Persian Gulf seems to have been affected, as he pointed out. Dikaiakos emphasized the geopolitical imbalances due to over-concentration in the US and China.
Asked about the situation in Cyprus, the Professor stressed that the AI data center sector has not been particularly developed, since, as he explained, the country presents significant disadvantages for attracting and utilizing large data centers. These disadvantages, he said, are the very high cost of electricity, the problems of electricity production and distribution, the high temperatures and lack of water required for cooling the infrastructure, the relatively high cost of land, the relative lag in the production and management of digital data and services, and the absence of strong know-how and scientists and technicians specializing in the design, development and operation of data centers.
Furthermore, Dikaiakos added, "it is clear that the existing national infrastructures in universities and research centers are insufficient for training young scientists in emerging AI technologies with high computational demands". This problem, he continued, "is certainly not exclusively a Cypriot one, but an international one, and is exacerbated by the soaring cost of computers due to the frenzy observed in AI data centers' development in the US and China".
However, Dikaiakos said, according to Stanford University's Global AI Vibrancy index for 2025, "we see that small countries such as Luxembourg, Singapore, Estonia, the Emirates, and Ireland have managed to rank very high in the international Global AU Vibrancy ranking, taking into account their small population." Regarding the environmental impact of the development of AI Data Centers, the Professor told CNA that the energy consumption of AI companies is increasing at an exponential rate.
According to recent reports, he said, Google's electricity consumption increased by 7 TWh from 2023 to 2024 and by 12 TWh from 2024 to 2025, which shows that not only consumption is increasing but also the rate of its growth itself. He also referred to the under-development Colossus data center by xAI, which will host approximately 500,000 GPUs and will require a total electrical power of around 1 GW for its operation, with an estimated investment cost of 40-60 billion dollars. "Such a data center will consume, on average, more electricity than the entire Republic of Cyprus," the Professor told CNA.
Equally important, he stressed, is the water footprint of AI, since water is essential for cooling AI computing infrastructures. The Professor told CNA that according to researchers at the University of California, training the GPT-3 model in Microsoft data centers required the evaporation of approximately 700,000 liters of pure freshwater, while by 2027, global demand for AI is estimated to require 4.2-6.6 billion cubic meters of water per year, an amount greater than the total annual water extraction of 4-6 countries the size of Denmark.
In another study, he said, the Brookings Institute points out that a typical data center consumes about 300,000 gallons of water per day (about 1.1 million liters), while a large hyperscaler center can reach 5 million gallons per day (about 19 million liters), an amount equivalent to the needs of a city of 50,000 inhabitants, and that water consumption for cooling may increase by up to 870% in the coming years. He noted, however, that there are different estimates from representatives of data center companies, who argue that with the implementation of water recycling, the water footprint of data centers will be almost zero.
"In any case, it is clear that the expansion of Artificial Intelligence raises enormous challenges for the environment and the management of natural resources," Dikaiakos underlined. Noting that the development of AI is already bringing about major changes in all sectors, he said that the utilization of AI will inevitably affect jobs and activities in a multitude of sectors.
The Professor stressed that in parallel with the use of productive AI and tools such as ChatGPT, "critical threats to human autonomy, the intellectual development of young people, culture, and democracy are emerging". Therefore, he concluded, "the question is not only how to utilize Artificial Intelligence, but also how to curb its negative consequences, bringing back to the center of our attention fundamental values of education and science, namely the development of human autonomy, critical thinking, and the self-worth of intellectual pursuit".