Essay by Eric Worrall
Will anyone still believe big tech claims they care about the environment?
Big Tech is betting billions on AI — but can climate promises keep up?
The technology’s breakneck growth is testing tech giants’ climate credentials.
JON GOLDBERG
AUGUST 22, 2025Artificial intelligence is sparking a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta are together projected to invest more than $300 billion in AI and data center infrastructure in 2025, and AI is expected to add more than $15 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
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A cynical narrative has emerged that chasing AI’s promise means abandoning decarbonization. Recent trends give some credence to this view. Google’s emissions jumped 48% from 2019 to 2023 and Microsoft’s emissions rose 30% since 2019 due to AI-supported data center expansion. Amazon’s emissions also increased in 2024, partially driven by new data center construction.
The reality, however, is more nuanced. Near-term emissions are increasing, but leading hyperscalers are doubling down on clean energy and decarbonization, simply because their AI ambitions depend on it.
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Read more: https://www.latitudemedia.com/news/big-tech-is-betting-billions-on-ai-but-can-climate-promises-keep-up/
Time Magazine also focuses on Google;
AUG 22, 2025 11:51 PM AET
What To Know About Google’s AI Climate Footprint
by Justin Worland
SENIOR CORRESPONDENTFor the climate concerned, the rise of the AI-reliant internet query is a cause for alarm. Many people have turned to ChatGPT and other services for simple questions. And even basic Google searches include an AI-derived result.
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Google’s progress boils down to two levers: cleaner power and more efficient chips and query crunching.
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But then there’s the company’s efficiency measures. In energy circles, efficiency tends to refer to simply using less energy and making energy hardware run more productively—think of climate control or better insulation. While Google has done some of that, the most impressive efficiency gains have come through the AI ecosystem rather than the energy system. The company has created its own chips—which it calls TPUs, as opposed to broadly used GPUs. Those chips have become more efficient over time—some 30 times more efficient since 2018, according to Google’s sustainability report. The company has also improved the efficiency of its models using techniques that crunch queries differently, thereby reducing the needed compute power. And a few weeks ago the company announced a program to shift data center demand to times when the electricity grid is less stressed.
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Read more: https://time.com/7311600/google-ai-climate-impact/
The problem with these claims are they implicitly suggest AI is a fixed quantity – if the chips are 30x more efficient, that means you need 30x less power right?
Only if AI use has peaked – which seems unlikely. More likely, any efficiency gains just mean you don’t have to divert as much fossil fuel power plant electricity to the cooling system.
I’ve no doubt the current AI boom contains a lot of bubble, but AI is here to stay. I’m using increasing amounts of AI in my daily work, as are a lot of people. The image at the top of this article was generated using AI. That AI summary at the top of your search results is starting to become useful.
Given soaring tech giant carbon footprints, do you believe tech giant claims they’re suddenly going to decarbonise it all away? Or is it more likely they’ll continue to swill cheap energy like pigs in the trough, while their PR departments work overtime trying to maintain a facade of green caring and sharing?
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