It is no longer a secret that artificial intelligence is a massive consumer of energy and water, unlike any digital technology before it. The recent sustainability reports from Google and Amazon, published this week, reveal the real cost of the AI boom on the environment. Both companies have seen their carbon emissions rise significantly: Google by 25% year-over-year, Amazon by 16%. These numbers jeopardize the ambitious net-zero targets that the two tech giants have set for the coming years.
Rising emissions linked to data center expansion
Although neither company directly blames AI for the increase, the indirect evidence is overwhelming. Both Google and Amazon acknowledge that energy consumption has grown significantly alongside AI adoption. Scope 3 emissions, which cover indirect pollution from purchased goods and services, are the main driver. Google's Scope 3 emissions have doubled compared to 2019, its baseline year, with an increase of 2.1 million metric tons in the last year alone. Amazon added more data center capacity than any other company in 2025, exceeding 1.2 GW in the fourth quarter alone. This construction boom has a high environmental cost, particularly due to the use of steel and concrete, heavily polluting industries, and the production of chips and GPUs, which require energy-intensive manufacturing processes and chemicals harmful to the climate.
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Renewable energy alone can no longer offset the carbon footprint
Until recently, purchasing renewable energy was enough to offset most of Google and Amazon's operational emissions. However, growing AI demand is pushing companies to invest in natural gas power plants, as Google has admitted, to ensure energy continuity for data centers. This marks a reversal from previous decarbonization efforts. Scope 2 emissions, related to purchased energy, have remained under control thanks to clean energy contracts, but the future is uncertain. The biggest challenge lies in Scope 3 emissions, which include data center construction and hardware manufacturing. To meet their net-zero pledges, Amazon and Google will need to massively increase renewable energy purchases, invest in low-emission steel and cement technologies, and buy millions of tons of carbon removal credits. This path is possible, but made much harder by their embrace of AI.
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A comparison with other environmental initiatives in tech
Google and Amazon's situation is not isolated. Other tech companies are facing similar challenges. For instance, the California manure methane program, designed to reduce emissions, may paradoxically increase global warming according to some studies, highlighting the complexity of environmental solutions. Meanwhile, initiatives like the Summer of Ludd in New York teach Gen Z to live without technology for a week, an interesting counterpoint to the tech dependency fueling AI demand. To learn more about the environmental impact of AI, you can refer to the Wikipedia page on carbon footprint.
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Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/02/a-warning-sign-about-ais-real-cost-courtesy-of-google-and-amazon
