Datacentres drive up big tech's carbon emissions to a third of those of France
Microsoft, Amazon and Google say they still aim to achieve net zero output despite construction boom
Microsoft, Amazon and Google’s collective carbon emissions have increased by nearly a fifth in the past year, driven largely by datacentre construction.
In the financial year ending March 2026, the three tech companies emitted 119m mTCO₂e (metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent), or about a third of those of France.
The previous year, they emitted roughly 101m mTCO₂e, roughly equivalent to the 2024 emissions of Czechia.
The US companies’ climate ambitions have been hit in recent years by a boom in demand for cloud services, such as storing data or running servers over the internet, related to training and operating chatbots and other AI products.
Cecilia Rikap, an economics professor at University College London, said: “Claims by Microsoft , Amazon and Google about their clouds being ecologically friendly and sustainable are a marketing strategy. Governments should remember these expanding carbon footprints when the very same companies offer addressing the ecological crisis with AI solutions.