By Ece Yildirim
Publication Date: 2026-08-13 19:45:00
Microsoft’s carbon footprint is swelling.
A BloombergNEF report from Thursday found that the tech giant bought about 80% fewer carbon removal credits so far this year than it did in the same time period last year, marking its first retreat in three years in the global carbon removal market that it dominates.
In response, the tech giant told Bloomberg that carbon removal is not the only strategy they are implementing towards previously proclaimed decarbonization goals, and that the changes did not imply a shift in that “ambition.” But that retreat from removing carbon emissions went hand in hand with Microsoft’s accelerating investments in climate-polluting artificial intelligence infrastructure.
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft’s AI bet resulted in a 25% increase in emissions last year. Since then, that bet has increased dramatically.
In just the three months from April to June, Microsoft said that it spent a whopping $41 billion, with a majority of…
