But they generate more money too.

In 2023, Google and Microsoft each consumed 24 TWh of electricity, surpassing the consumption of over 100 nations, including places like Iceland, Ghana, and Tunisia, according to an analysis by Michael Thomas. While massive energy usage means a substantial environmental impact for these tech giants, it should be noted that Google and Microsoft also generate more money than many countries. Furthermore, companies like Intel, Google, and Microsoft lead renewable energy adoption within the industry.

Detailed analysis reveals that Google’s and Microsoft’s electricity consumption — 24 TWh in 2023 — equals the power consumption of Azerbaijan (a nation of 10.14 million) and is higher than that of several other countries. For instance, Iceland, Ghana, the Dominican Republic, and Tunisia each consumed 19 TWh, while Jordan consumed 20 TWh. Of course, some countries consume more power than Google and Microsoft. For example, Slovakia, a country with 5.4 million inhabitants, consumes 26 TWh.

  • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
    73·
    4 months ago

    You also use Gmail and force Google to run their servers to power it.

    Reducing your carbon footprint as much as possible is important, but it’s absurd to get mad at companies that power 90% of the world’s businesses for using a bunch of power to do so. It takes power to do those things.

    • chip@feddit.rocksEnglish
      31·
      4 months ago

      I just wish we never got to this point to begin with. We shouldn’t have trusted all our keys to a single cool startup in the early 2000s.

      • Scrollone@feddit.itEnglish
        5·
        4 months ago

        To be honest, one single company running all the infrastructure is probably way better on the environment than millions of small providers

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.zipEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          Is not. Small providers may go bankrupt if they are too wasteful, one single company thinks big. Thinking big it introduces to everyone at once various stupid things which waste energy too. Not the case with small providers. As in using Gmail’s webpage versus an IMAP client.

      • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        Microsoft posted a revenue of $211.9 billion for 2023. Keeping in mind that the vast majority of the world’s population uses Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office and loads of online applications run on Microsoft Azure, the economic impact of Microsoft’s products is probably counted in trillions of dollars.

        Comparing this to countries with the same ballpark energy consumption, Azerbaijan’s GDP was about $78 billion, Slovakia’s GDP was around $127 billion, and Iceland’s GDP was approximately $30 billion in 2023.

        The economic output of Google and Microsoft by far exceeds these countries’ GDPs, highlighting the vast financial scale of these tech giants relative to their substantial electricity consumption.

        Oh yeah, it’s crazy to think that! I don’t know where I would have gotten that idea, other than the article that OP linked that we’re all discussing.

        Yes, training new AI models uses a bunch of power, so does building out any new infrastructure. Atleast Microsoft and Google use a far high percentage of renewable power than most other industries.