Amazon and Google both reported significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions in 2025, underscoring the growing difficulty for technology companies to reconcile climate goals with the large energy demands of operating artificial intelligence systems. Bloomberg noted that much of this additional power is still supplied from fossil fuels.
Amazon: 16% increase versus 2024
According to Amazon’s sustainability report released on Wednesday, the company’s total emissions rose 16 percent compared with 2024. Amazon reported roughly 81 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions in 2025, which the company said is roughly comparable to the annual emissions of about 19 million conventional gasoline cars. Amazon attributed the rise mainly to data-center construction and increased fuel use for deliveries.
Google: increases across metrics, partially offset by clean energy purchases
Google’s so-called goal-based emissions — which exclude some parts of the supply chain — rose 18 percent. Direct, operational Scope 1 emissions increased by 20 percent, partly due to an expanding data-center footprint. The company also reported a 25 percent increase in supply-chain-related Scope 3 emissions, primarily tied to hardware manufacturing and data-center construction.
Google’s electricity consumption grew by 37 percent, but the company said purchases of clean energy allowed it to slightly reduce its purchased-energy, indirect Scope 2 emissions. By contrast, Amazon’s emissions from purchased electricity rose by 34 percent.
Other players and sector-wide effects
Microsoft and Meta reported emission increases of 23 percent and 64 percent, respectively. Microsoft had previously pledged to cover all electricity consumption with carbon-neutral sources by 2030, but the rapid expansion of data centers has led the company to consider loosening that commitment.
The large power needs of data centers are also pushing up residential electricity prices and encouraging investments in fossil infrastructure, including gas-fired power plants. Bloomberg’s reporting notes that SpaceX, for example, uses gas turbines to power data centers in Tennessee and Mississippi.
Net-zero targets versus reality
Amazon has set a net-zero target for 2040, while Google aims for 2030. Both companies stated continued commitment to their sustainability goals, but Google acknowledged in its report that the path to net zero will not be smooth because AI infrastructure is being built out faster than power grids are being decarbonized.
Critics say the sector should be doing far more to shrink its carbon footprint and that emissions should not be rising amid the climate crisis, yet current investments and operations by data-center operators are pushing emissions upward.
Conclusion
Data for 2025 show rising greenhouse gas emissions among major technology companies, driven in part by the expansion of AI applications and the data centers that support them. The trend highlights the urgent need to align decarbonization of electricity systems with the growing demands of high-performance computing in the tech industry.
