Amazon’s new sustainability stats are the latest signal that Big Tech hasn’t yet figured out how to reconcile its climate goals with its AI ambitions — and that for now, there’s a clear winner in the tug-of-war between those objectives.
Amazon’s not alone here: It’s the first of its cohort to publish 2025 figures, but Google, Meta, and others have also recently recorded emissions hikes, driven by data center construction and operations. While most power company executives agree that solar-plus-batteries is the fastest and cheapest form of new generation to build, tech firms still seem to harbor some anxiety about renewables being able to provide enough juice — and in many cases, are simply locked in to whatever power plants already exist on the grid in a given location. In Amazon’s case, emissions from purchased electricity jumped 34% year-on-year in 2025. For now, there’s simply not enough clean power available, Hurst said, because of the familiar litany of bottlenecks with permitting and grid interconnection.
“Power availability is a challenge right now,” she said. “So is grid modernization, and so are a number of other things in the US, but we’re working on all of these issues.”
Power is only part of the problem. The company also reported a 20% bump in its supply chain emissions, which account for three-quarters of its total carbon footprint. In particular, data center construction materials have become a big problem, Hurst said, and the company is stepping up its investment in lower-carbon steel and concrete. It’s also still battling to get its sprawling network of global suppliers to agree and implement their own carbon-cutting plans.
In the meantime, Hurst is looking forward to “catalytic” energy tech breakthroughs, such as advanced small-scale nuclear, to break the data center emissions pattern. Any plan that relies on nuclear energy breakthroughs on a tight timeline carries plenty of risk. But Hurst remains confident about hitting net zero on time. “2040 is a really ambitious goal, but we are absolutely gunning towards it,” she said. “I don’t see any alternative to that.”