Microsoft denies Mexico data center linked to water shortages, local illnesses, and power outages — stomach bugs and even hepatitis reported in region as 1.5 Gigawatt AI data center buildout looms

Local residents near a Mexico data center built by Microsoft last year have been complaining of a range of negative utility and health effects that they’re attributing to the data center itself, according to the New York Times. They’ve highlighted several incidents of water shortages, power outages, and even stomach bugs, with some local schools forced to close temporarily.

Though causation does not imply causality and the individual incidents are isolated and not necessarily linked, the reports of…