Data center emissions likely 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse?

Data center emissions from Google , Microsoft , Meta and Apple are likely about 662% higher than officially reported.

Amazon is the largest emitter of the big five tech companies by a mile .

Amazon has been kept out of the calculation above because its differing business model makes it difficult to isolate data center-specific emissions figures for the company.

Microsoft calls it its 100/100/0 goal, or its goal to have all its facilities running on 100% carbon-free energy 100% of the time.

Google has already phased out its Rec use and Microsoft aims to do the same with low-quality “unbundled” (non location-specific) Recs by 2030 .

Data centers’ electricity demand is projected to double by 2030 due to the additional load that artificial intelligence poses.

Apple has a large gap between its official scope 3 emissions figure and its location-based scope 3 figure, starting in 2022 .

The only change to Apple ’s scope 3 methodology in 2022 was to include “work from home, third -party cloud services, electricity transmission and distribution losses, and upstream impacts from scope 1 fuels”.