AI Boom Drives Big Tech Carbon Footprint to One-Third of France's Total

The carbon emissions of Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have surged nearly 20% in the past year, driven largely by the construction of massive data centers to support artificial intelligence. In the financial year ending March 2026, the three companies together released 119 million metric tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (mTCO₂e) - roughly one-third of France's annual emissions. Just a year earlier, their combined output was 101 million mTCO₂e, about the same as Czechia's total for 2024.

The spike marks a sharp reversal for companies that had spent years cutting emissions. Microsoft's carbon output jumped 25% last year to 20 million mTCO₂e, while Google's rose 18% and Amazon's increased 16%. All three still claim net-zero targets - Microsoft and Google by 2030, Amazon by 2040 - but their own sustainability reports show that the AI infrastructure buildout is overwhelming those goals. "The increases are strongly correlated with AI investment," said Shaolei Ren, an electrical engineering professor at UC Riverside. He also noted that Microsoft's report hinted at a shortage of carbon credits to offset its rising emissions.

Cecilia Rikap, an economics professor at University College London, called the companies' green marketing into question. "Claims about clouds being ecologically friendly are a marketing strategy," she said. "When these same firms offer AI to solve the ecological crisis, governments should remember their expanding carbon footprints." The data center boom shows no signs of slowing: JLL expects about 1,200 new data centers globally by 2030, overwhelmingly for AI. The Uptime Institute warns that large projects announced last year could consume 1.3% of the world's electricity - nearly doubling current data center demand.

Source: The Guardian