Microsoft’s emissions have increased by nearly a third since 2020, due to the expansion of the infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence, which poses a threat to its climate objectives.
The shocking increase is a stark reminder of the company’s focus on shareholder profits over keeping its ecological promises and is likely not going to be the last time the giant’s commitment falters when it sees an opportunity for lining its pockets.
“Our challenges are in part unique to our position as a leading cloud supplier that is expanding its data centres,” Microsoft said. And while it is true the company is in a race against competitors including Amazon and Google to invest in building out the infrastructure to service the new AI compute requirements, its failure to consider the ongoing environmental impact is disappointing.
