Google and Amazon emissions jump as AI data centers expand

Google and Amazon reported significant increases in their greenhouse gas emissions last year, driven by an unprecedented expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure that is straining their ambitious climate goals. The disclosures, made in annual sustainability reports published this week, underscore the growing environmental cost of the global AI race.

Google's total emissions rose by 18% in 2025 compared to the previous year, marking an 82% increase since 2019. The company's electricity consumption surged by 37% last year, the largest annual increase in its history, with data center energy use now rivaling the electricity consumption of entire countries like Greece or New Zealand. Amazon reported a 16% rise in its emissions for 2025, reaching approximately 81 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, an amount comparable to the annual emissions from 19 million gasoline-powered cars. Amazon's emissions have increased by 58% since 2019.

Both companies attributed the spikes primarily to the construction and operation of data centers needed to power AI services, alongside growth in their broader cloud computing and logistics operations. The manufacturing of chips...