AI threatens Big Tech’s clean energy agenda

Amazon, Google and Microsoft are pouring roughly $750 billion combined into data center expansion in 2025 and 2026, mostly to run AI. That building boom is driving up their electricity use and, with it, their reported carbon emissions. Google's power consumption jumped 37 percent in 2025 to 43.6 million megawatt-hours, its biggest single-year increase ever and enough to power the state of Washington for a year. Microsoft's electricity use rose 24 percent, and its emissions tied to that power climbed 21 percent. Amazon reported a 34 percent rise in emissions from electricity, though it did not disclose total power use.

None of the three has walked back its long-term climate targets, which mostly point to 2030 and beyond. To get there, they are leaning on nuclear power: Amazon has signed deals for close to 2 gigawatts plus two new projects this year, Microsoft is backing experimental fusion technology, and Google has committed to nuclear capacity in Ohio. They are also investing in large batteries to store solar and wind power so it can be used around the clock, and in clean power projects in Asia, a region all three flag as harder to decarbonize.

This is a corporate energy story rather than a homeowner one. It does not change any rebate program, tax credit, or home upgrade option. It does matter for the bigger picture of the country's electric grid, since AI's growing appetite for power is now shaping how much clean energy gets built, where, and how fast.