July 12, 2026
Cloudy with a chance of backlash
Datacentres drive up big tech's carbon emissions to a third of those of France
AI’s giant server farms are blowing up emissions — and commenters are freaking out
TLDR: Microsoft, Amazon, and Google’s emissions jumped to 119 million tonnes as they build more AI datacentres, a huge climate setback for companies that promised to go greener. Commenters swung between panic, nuclear-power arguments, and savage jokes, with many calling out the gap between Big Tech’s eco branding and reality.
Big Tech wanted the future to look sleek, smart, and cloud-shaped. Instead, the internet is staring at a much messier headline: Microsoft, Amazon, and Google now pump out a combined 119 million tonnes of climate pollution, up sharply in a year, largely because they’re racing to build more datacentres for the AI boom. That’s roughly a third of France’s emissions — and the comments section immediately turned into a mix of doom-posting, gallows humor, and energy-policy warfare.
The loudest mood was pure panic. One commenter summed up the vibe with the bleakly perfect: “Man, we are cooked, literally.” Others zoomed in on just how wild the France comparison is, arguing that this isn’t some tiny benchmark but a major industrial country with cars, farms, tractors, and all. Then came the side-quest drama: is this really the datacentres’ fault, or the power plants feeding them? One camp argued server buildings themselves don’t burn fuel, so the real answer is simple but politically explosive: build nuclear power and price carbon properly. Another camp was having none of the corporate spin, especially Amazon calling a rise in emissions “progress.”
And of course, the thread had jokes. The darkest laugh came from the commenter who deadpanned: “We don't really need the French on the other hand, how could we live without AI?” Meanwhile, another user dropped a related report about Irish datacentres using 23% of the country’s electricity, which only made the whole thing feel less like a blip and more like the start of a very hot, very online future.
Key Points
- •Microsoft, Amazon and Google reported combined emissions of 119 million mTCO2e in the financial year ending March 2026, up from about 101 million the previous year.
- •The article attributes the increase mainly to datacentre construction and supply chain expansion tied to cloud and AI demand.
- •Microsoft reported a 25% rise in emissions to 20 million mTCO2e, Google reported an 18% increase, and Amazon reported a 16% increase overall.
- •The article says the world’s biggest tech companies are on track to spend $765 billion this year, mostly on AI datacentres.
- •JLL forecasts about 1,200 datacentres will be built globally by 2030, with demand overwhelmingly driven by AI.