• Google and Microsoft each consumed over 24 TWh of electricity in 2023 to power their AI products.
• This is more than the total energy consumption of sovereign nations like Ireland, Jordan and even Ghana.
• Energy usage for generative AI-powering data centres at big tech will only likely increase exponentially in the next few years.

In their unquenchable thirst for profits on the back of the current golden goose of technology – generative AI – Google and Microsoft are consuming enormous amounts of electricity at data centres owned by each company in order to service generative AI products to customers across the globe.

According to Michael Thomas of the EIA Global Energy Review, Google and Microsoft each consumed 24 TWh of electricity in 2023, which is more than the entire power consumption of several world nations, including Iceland, Jordan, and even Ghana – a nation with 33 million inhabitants.

For interest sake, South Africa consumed around 195 TWh of electricity in a year, doing so in 2023 according to EnerData. The majority of local energy consumption goes to the industrial sector.

Both Google and Microsoft have pledged to reduce their energy consumption and especially slow down the spread of their carbon footprints, but the advent of generative AI, and more importantly, the enormous profit-making potential of the technology, has thrown a wrench in these green dreams.

Earlier this month, Google noted that it was using 13 percent more energy in the last year than in 2022, primarily due to “increases in data centre energy consumption and supply chain emissions.” The tech giant is seemingly rethinking certain environmental goals now that the situation around AI has changed.

“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment,” Google wrote in its 2024 Environmental Report.

Electricity consumed by Google’s data centres currently account for 24 percent of its carbon footprint, and the company says that because of generative AI, its data centre power consumption has outpaced the company’s ability to bring more power-saving initiatives online.

Another worrying point is that generative AI is still in its nascency, only being around in the public conscience since late 2022 when ChatGPT launched to the world. It is likely that energy consumption to drive generative AI will skyrocket in the next few years. A Goldman Sachs analyst believes that this increase may be as much as 160 percent.

Other major tech firms may soon see their energy usage outpace green and carbon neutral initiatives in the next few years, with Amazon also looking to bring generative AI into the fore in a big way even though it says it is focused on achieving its carbon goals.

[Image – Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash]