Planned US Data Centers Set to Produce 24M Cars’ Worth Of Carbon Dioxide
Researchers find Big Tech’s most ambitious builds and climate pledges are colliding with its AI power demands.
A new analysis reveals that 60 major data centers set to be constructed in the US could generate 101.5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, once fully operational. This equates to 7% of all 2025 US power-sector emissions, or the emissions produced by running 27 coal power plants or adding 24 million more gas-powered cars to the roads.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has been mapping out communities affected by data center construction and operations, with polling indicating that most Americans oppose AI factories in their neighborhoods. Big Tech companies publicly committed to cutting emissions just five years ago, yet their actual emissions have risen since then.
Amazon's emissions increased by 16% from 2024 to 2025, driven by data center construction and a 34% rise in electricity purchases. Microsoft reported a 25% increase in estimated emissions during the same period, while Google reported an 18% increase in emissions according to its own adjusted metric. The surge in gas-fired energy capacity development in the US, along with the potential 50% growth in existing gas-burning infrastructure, exacerbates the issue.
Utilities are rushing to meet data center demand with available power, which primarily runs 24/7 and is often sourced from fossil fuels. Consequently, tech giants are relying heavily on renewable energy credits to compensate for the dirty differences between their public commitments and actual grid operations. However, this approach proves costly and may be scaled back in the future as profitability pressures mount.
Utilities are also increasing production to meet mounting and projected demand, planning to add tens of thousands of megawatts of energy capacity specifically for data center infrastructure. Notably, three-quarters of operators serving these 60 sites are constructing or planning new gas capacity, while a third of those running coal plants are delaying retirement dates.
This growing wave of gas and coal plants contradicts the expected environmental trends, presenting an additional cost and strain to the AI boom that was not anticipated by outsiders to the tech industry.
Written by urgent.news from CNET's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
