Atoco Plans to Pull Water From Air Using Data Center Heat
Original: A Startup Has a Plan to Make Water From Air Using Data Centers’ Waste Heat
Why This Matters
Water scarcity plus AI's massive heat output makes this pairing commercially and environmentally significant.
Irvine startup Atoco is deploying MOF-based machines that harvest water from air using waste heat from AI data centers — no electricity required — targeting water-stressed regions globally.
Atoco, an Irvine, California startup, is building 20-foot-tall machines that extract drinkable water from air using metal organic frameworks (MOFs) — specialized materials capable of absorbing and releasing water molecules repeatedly without any grid connection. The only energy input needed is low-grade waste heat, the kind data centers produce in abundance as their servers run continuously.
MOFs were developed by Atoco founder Omar Yaghi, whose 20-plus years of research on the materials earned him the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. A gram of MOF has interior surface area equivalent to two football fields, making it extraordinarily effective at trapping molecules — including water vapor from some of the driest air on Earth.
The data center angle wasn't part of the original plan. CEO Samer Taha says the AI buildout created an unexpected commercial opening: facilities that already consume enormous amounts of water for cooling could instead use their own waste heat to generate it. The company's VP of R&D Benjie Limketkai frames the material challenge bluntly — the MOF needs to "like water but not love it," absorbing readily and releasing cleanly on repeat cycles.
Atoco's current prototypes produce gallons per day. The larger ambition is deploying the technology in water-stressed regions where access to fresh water is unreliable. The industrial park demo in Irvine, on a September morning already over 80°F, was a live test of systems being readied for commercial scale.