Google and Amazon released sustainability reports showing total carbon emissions rose 25% and 16% respectively as both companies said energy use increased alongside growing AI workloads.
The reports make clear the bulk of the increase sits in Scope 3, emissions from suppliers, capital goods and use of sold products, rather than from purchased electricity, where years of renewable buying have restrained operational emissions.
“To meet strong customer demand, in 2025 we added more data center capacity globally than any other company, including more than 1.2 gigawatt (GW) in Q4 alone,” Amazon wrote in its report.
Google reported Scope 3 emissions rose by 2.1 million metric tons last year and are now double their 2019 baseline, while Google lumps capital goods and use‑of‑sold‑products together and calls the latter immaterial.
Amazon attributes rising Scope 3 mostly to capital goods and fuel and energy, a category that captures new data centers and warehouses alongside other supplier activity.
Both reports note that renewable purchases have contained emissions from energy consumption, but that companies are increasingly relying on fossil fuel capacity, including new natural gas generation, to meet AI power needs.
The reports highlight harder‑to‑fix sources of emissions, steel and cement for data center construction, energy‑intensive semiconductor manufacturing and potent process chemicals, and conclude that meeting net‑zero will require far larger renewable purchases, investments in low‑carbon materials and substantial carbon removal.
