Tech giants' indirect emissions rose 150% in three years as AI expands, UN agency says


A visitior stands near a logo of Amazon during the annual Retail Leadership Summit in Mumbai, India, February 27, 2025. REUTERS/Hemanshi Kamani/File Photo

GENEVA (Reuters) -Indirect carbon emissions from the operations of four of the leading AI-focused tech companies rose on average by 150% from 2020-2023, due to the demands of power-hungry data centres, a United Nations report said on Thursday.

The use of artificial intelligence by Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta drove up their global indirect emissions because of the vast amounts of energy required to power data centres, the report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the U.N. agency for digital technologies, said.

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