Microsoft's emissions rose 25 percent as AI data centers expand
Microsoft reported that its carbon emissions rose roughly 25 percent in 2025, attributing the increase to the rapid expansion of data centers built to train and run AI systems, along with shifts in how it sources renewable energy.
The figure underscores the tension between the AI buildout and corporate climate commitments. Microsoft has pledged to be carbon negative by 2030, but the electricity, construction and hardware behind new data-center capacity — much of it embodied emissions from steel, concrete and chips — push in the opposite direction. The company is one of the largest corporate buyers of clean power, yet demand from AI is growing faster than low-carbon supply can be added to the grid. The trend is not unique to Microsoft; the same pressure is showing up across the major cloud providers, and it complicates the industry’s argument that AI’s energy footprint can be offset on the timelines companies have promised.