Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have collectively increased their carbon emissions by nearly a fifth over the past year, largely due to the construction and expansion of datacentres. In the financial year ending March 2026, the three companies emitted 119 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (mTCO₂e), roughly one-third of France’s national emissions.
This marks a significant rise from the previous year’s combined emissions of approximately 101 million mTCO₂e, comparable to the 2024 emissions of Czechia. The surge is attributed to booming demand for cloud services and AI-related activities, such as training and operating chatbots.
Microsoft reported a 25% increase in its emissions to 20 million mTCO₂e, primarily driven by datacentre infrastructure expansion. Google’s emissions rose by 18%, citing increased supply chain activities supporting rapid business growth. Amazon noted a 16% overall emissions increase and a 20% rise in supply chain emissions, including datacentre construction.
The Uptime Institute, which inspects datacentres, estimates that large datacentre projects announced last year could consume 1.3% of global electricity, nearly doubling current datacentre demand.
Despite these increases, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google maintain their commitment to achieving net zero emissions. However, Cecilia Rikap, an economics professor at University College London, criticized their sustainability claims as marketing strategies, highlighting that companies migrating to these cloud services effectively outsource their digital and AI carbon footprints to the tech giants.
Loading comments.