Two Fossil Fuel Companies Are Betting Big on Data Centers
Chevron and Williams are big winners in the race to power artificial intelligence as they build out gas-fired power plants and pipelines.
Two American oil and gas companies, Williams and Chevron, are capitalizing on the rise of data centers by investing heavily in the infrastructure needed to power them. Williams recently announced $5 billion in investments for its data center ventures, including six new behind-the-meter gas plants to serve Meta data centers in Ohio.
These plants could emit up to 9.6 million tons of greenhouse gases per year, equivalent to the emissions from over 22 average natural gas plants. Chevron, meanwhile, is building a 2.67-gigawatt project for a Microsoft data center in Texas, which is expected to produce more than 11.5 million tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions per year.
Both companies emphasize that their facilities will comply with environmental regulations, but environmental groups argue that investing in fossil fuel infrastructure for data centers is essentially a lifeline to an industry that needs to be phased out.
Written by urgent.news from Wired Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
