Microsoft, Amazon, Google's carbon emissions are equivalent to a country
What's the story
Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have seen their carbon emissions rise by nearly 20% in the last year. The surge is mainly due to the construction of new data centers. In FY26, the three tech giants emitted a total of 119 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent (mTCO2e) or around a third of those of France. This is a significant increase from about 101 million mTCO2e last year, roughly equal to Czechia's entire emissions in 2024.
Impact
Criticism of tech giants' environmental claims
The spike in emissions is mainly due to the rising demand for cloud services, like data storage and server operations. This trend has been especially pronounced with the rise of chatbots and other AI products. Cecilia Rikap, an economics professor at University College London, criticized claims by Microsoft, Amazon, and Google that their clouds are environmentally friendly. She said these companies are using their carbon footprints as a marketing strategy while offering solutions to the ecological crisis with AI technologies.
Emission increase
Breakdown of emissions by company
In their annual sustainability reports, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have all reported an increase in carbon emissions. Microsoft reported a 25% jump in its carbon emissions over the past year to 20 million mTCO2e, mainly due to data center infrastructure expansion. Google said its emissions rose by 18% due to supply chain activities supporting rapid business growth. Meanwhile, Amazon recorded a total emission increase of 16%, with supply chain emissions (including data center construction) rising by 20%.
Infrastructure impact
Tech companies' spending on AI infrastructure
The rise in emissions is largely due to a global push to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI). The world's biggest tech companies are expected to spend $765 billion this year, mostly on building AI data centers. Despite the rise in emissions, all three companies still plan to achieve net zero emissions, Google and Microsoft by 2030, Amazon by 2040.