Top tech firms’ carbon emissions soared 150% from 2020 to 2023, driven by AI and cloud computing, the UN agency ITU reports.
Amazon’s emissions jumped 182%, Microsoft’s 155%, Meta’s 145%, and Alphabet’s 138%. These numbers count carbon from their own operations plus purchased energy.
The report flags the AI boom and data centers as the main culprits. 
Doreen Bogdan-Martin, ITU head, said:
Advances in digital innovation – especially AI – are driving up energy consumption and global emissions.
ITU warns unchecked AI emissions could hit 102.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year soon.
Currently, there are no standards or legislative requirements for companies to disclose their AI emissions or energy consumption, which makes understanding the impact of AI on company-level energy use less straightforward.
Data centers’ electricity use also surged. The International Energy Agency says power-hungry data centers consumed 415 TWh in 2023 — 1.5% of global power — with usage climbing 12% yearly since 2017. By 2030, demand could hit 945 TWh, outstripping Japan’s current consumption.
Overall, digital firms gobbled 581 TWh in 2024, about 2.1% of global demand, heavily concentrated among the top 10: China Mobile, Amazon, Samsung, China Telecom, Alphabet, Microsoft, TSMC, China Unicom, SK Hynix, and Meta.
166 of 200 companies disclosed emissions totaling 297 million tonnes CO2e in 2023 — equal to emissions from Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile combined.
