‘Let’s not go overboard’ on worries about AI energy use, Bill Gates says

Bill Gates, with Prince William at the Breakthrough Energy Summit in London, said: "The question is, will AI accelerate a more than 6% reduction? And the answer is: certainly." Photo / Getty Images

Microsoft co-founder argues Big Tech’s investment in power-hungry artificial intelligence systems is spurring a boom in clean electricity

Bill Gates has defended the rapid rise in energy use caused by artificial intelligence systems, arguing the technology would ultimately offset its heavy consumption of electricity.

Speaking in London, Gates urged environmentalists and governments to “not go overboard” on concerns about the huge amounts of power required to run new generative AI systems, as Big Tech companies such as Microsoft race to invest tens of billions of dollars in vast new data centres.

Data centres will drive a rise in global electricity usage of between 2-6 per cent, the billionaire said.

“The question is, will AI accelerate a more than 6 per cent reduction? And the answer is: certainly,” said Gates, the Microsoft co-founder who has been a prolific investor in companies developing sustainable energy and carbon-reduction technologies.

In May, Microsoft admitted that its greenhouse gas emissions had risen by almost a third since 2020, in large part due to the construction of data centres.

Gates, who left Microsoft’s board in 2020 but remains an adviser to chief executive Satya Nadella, said tech companies would pay a “green premium” — or higher price — for clean energy as they seek new sources of power, which was helping to drive its development and deployment.

“The tech companies are the people willing to pay a premium and to help bootstrap green energy capacity,” he said at the Breakthrough Energy Summit in London on Thursday.

The Breakthrough Energy group — which was founded by Gates and also counts Jeff Bezos, Masayoshi Son and Jack Ma as investors — has invested in more than 100 companies developing sustainable energy and other technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Its London event included speakers such as Prince William, former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi and John Podesta, the US’s top climate diplomat.

Big Tech groups including Microsoft, Amazon and Google have outlined plans to spend tens of billions of dollars building out the computing infrastructure required to run AI systems in countries around the world.

But constraints in the availability of electricity are already posing a challenge for companies seeking to build out the new technology.

A report by the US Department of Energy in April said AI was “expected to be the biggest driver of US data centre-related load growth in the near future”.

While the likes of Amazon and Microsoft have signed long-term power purchase agreements with wind and solar power generators, those deals “typically do not match electricity demand hour by hour with local resources”, the US agency said. That meant there was “no guarantee that all electricity-related greenhouse gas emissions are offset” by the agreements.

In May, the Electric Power Research Institute said data centres could consume up to 9 per cent of US electricity generation by 2030, more than double what they currently use.

Despite arguing that tech companies were driving a rollout of green energy, he said one of his biggest concerns was “getting enough electricity” needed to meet growing demand while also cleaning up vast sectors, such as cement and steel.

“The amount of green electricity that we need for the transition is not going to show up nearly as fast as we need,” he said.

Because of this, the global goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 was likely to be missed, arguing “another 10 or 15 years might be more realistic”.

Written by: Attracta Mooney and Camilla Hodgson in London

© Financial Times