Nepal, July 11 -- Every time a user clicks on Gemini AI icon on Gmail or AI Overview on Google search, every prompt that is typed into ChatGPT or Claude, means that somewhere in the world a data centre needs energy to power servers, and water to cool them. Intelligence, even if it is artificial, generates lots of heat.

Because of Nepal's cooler climate, its surplus hydroelectricity, and abundant water on Himalayan rivers, proponents of AI have been talking up the benefits of locating data centres in the country.

The utopian vision is that this technology is an opportunity for Nepal as a South Asian data hub, in between the tech powerhouses China and India, to generate revenue and employment, and have some important role in the digital ...