The saying goes that a rising tide lifts all boats. Although it might seem counterintuitive given resource concerns, that sentiment may also be true for water infrastructure in the artificial intelligence (AI) era.
With hyperscale data centers getting larger and demanding more compute power, the need for other resources to run and cool these facilities is growing, too. Amid this backdrop, in its “Public Equity Investor Letter Q2 2026,” Water Asset Management (WAM) identified three major accelerators likely to enhance opportunities throughout the coming decade. Among these are water utility infrastructure privatizations (primarily through initial public offerings and secondaries), intensifying drought and flood from climate change tipping points, and data center and related energy demand growth.
“With the help of these three accelerators, we do not expect the next two decades of water investment to be ‘business as usual,’” stated WAM. “Instead, we believe
