Faced with the explosion in demand for electricity from AI, data center operators are building their own natural gas-fired power plants, at the risk of causing American CO2 emissions to soar.
An analysis of 99 natural gas-fired power plant projects dedicated to data centers shows that they would emit about 318 million tons of CO2 per year if they were operating at a standard industrial rate. This increasing use of purpose-built power plants illustrates the tension between AI's energy appetite and the climate commitments displayed by big tech companies.
This dynamic is accompanied by considerable investment: the giants of the sector could inject up to $7,000 billion into data center infrastructure by 2030 on a global scale, including nearly $2,800 billion in the United States alone. 2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal year in which galloping energy demand will have to be reconciled with carbon neutrality commitments that are increasingly difficult to meet.
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