Almost 30 percent more emissions
AI makes Microsoft a climate sinner
May 17, 2024, 7:27 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
Microsoft is worth $3.1 trillion on the stock market. This is mainly due to the hype surrounding artificial intelligence. But this thwarts the group’s ambitious climate goals.
Four years ago, Microsoft committed to not only being climate neutral, but also to become climate negative by 2030. But this ambitious goal – to remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than the company causes directly – is becoming more distant due to the boom in artificial intelligence.
Since 2020, emissions have increased by almost a third due to the expansion of AI data centers, the group announced in its latest sustainability report. AI infrastructure processes huge amounts of data. This initially increases the workload of the existing data centers and thus the energy consumption. At the same time, the demand for AI applications is increasing so rapidly that Microsoft has to build more data centers. This requires, for example, cement, steel and microchips – things that are produced using C02 intensively. The resulting emissions are damaging Microsoft’s climate footprint.
Microsoft’s direct emissions fell by 6.3 percent from 2020 to the end of 2023, the report says. However, emissions from the supply chain – which make up the majority of total emissions – rose by 30.9 percent. This led to a 29.1 percent increase in total emissions, the company explains.
Microsoft is in a race with Amazon and Google to expand AI infrastructure. The company has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, which is behind the chatbot ChatGPT. Microsoft also develops its own AI applications.
This shows how the boom in artificial intelligence is colliding with companies’ goal of becoming more climate neutral. ChatGPT, triggered the hype about artificial intelligence and played a key role in Microsoft becoming the world’s most valuable company. Current market value: $3.1 trillion.