Technology

58009 readers

2916 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

675

Google and Microsoft consume more power than some countries (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 2 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

72 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

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. Get mad at the companies who are over consuming relative to their peers and those that are driving demand towards unattainable activities. Just getting mad at people for moving and using energy is absurd.

[–] chip@feddit.rocks 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.it 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

it’s absurd to get mad at companies that power 90% of the world’s businesses

It's absurd to actually think that this is what's happening. wow.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/02/googles-carbon-emissions-surge-nearly-50percent-due-to-ai-energy-demand.html

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month 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.