The AI data center buildout is forcing companies and legislators to rethink their climate pledges.
Amazon’s carbon emissions have risen for two consecutive years, and its chief sustainability officer told Semafor they would continue to do so for years to come — the latest signal that Big Tech’s AI ambitions are taking priority over the sector’s climate goals.
Google, Meta, and others have also recently recorded emissions hikes. The EU is considering watering down its own climate rules to ease data center construction, the Financial Times reported; though the bloc has suffered a historic climate-change-driven heatwave, it has barely 1/15th of the AI-ready compute that the US has, leaving it vulnerable as AI becomes increasingly economically vital.