Google and Microsoft consume more power annually than more than 100 individual countries, research shows, as the competition for generative AI supremacy destroys corporate emission targets.

Michael Thomas, a climate researcher, crunched the numbers and found that the two tech giants were consuming 24 terawatts of energy each year, equal to 42 trillion watts of power.

The two are each using more power than countries like Jordan, Iceland and Azerbaijan, Thomas said.

Emissions targets

Microsoft launched ambitious emissions targets in 2020, pledging to be carbon neutral by the end of the decade.

The emergence of generative AI and the energy required to power systems, however, have seriously called that into question.

Microsoft’s emissions are 30 per cent higher than they were in 2020 when it made the pledge, according to Bloomberg.

Microsoft is failing to stop rising emissions, let alone reach carbon-neutral status. Photo: Getty

Google is also struggling to meet its net zero by 2030 pledge, with the company’s latest environmental report flagging that its emissions were 48 per cent higher in 2023 when compared to 2019.

Those emissions increase are because of “increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute”.

“Overall, our total GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions increased by 13 per cent – highlighting the challenge of reducing emissions while computing intensity increases and we grow our technical infrastructure investment to support this AI transition,” Google said.

“AI is at an inflection point and many factors will influence its ultimate impact, including the extent of AI adoption, our ability to mitigate its footprint, and the pace of continued innovation and efficiency.”

Bizarrely, Google argues in the same report that AI will play a role in accelerating climate action by offering greater data analysis.

Other impacts

Although power is one resource being consumed by the pair of trillion-dollar companies, there is another being gobbled up by AI-generated greed: Water.

Data centres require a huge amount of water and energy to run. Photo: Getty

The data centres required to process generative AI for companies like Google, Microsoft and OpenAI are massive, with every five to 50 prompts using more than 500 millilitres of water, compared to just half a millilitre for a regular Google search.

The companies creating the data centres also severely underestimate the amount of water required to run them, with one facility in the Netherlands requiring four times more water than Microsoft originally planned.

Although these companies are chasing more sustainable water practices, the amount of data centres being built is far outstripping any efforts to mitigate the impacts.