{"id":10494,"date":"2026-07-19T10:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T05:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=10494"},"modified":"2026-07-19T10:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T05:51:17","slug":"the-ai-boom-tests-the-limits-of-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=10494","title":{"rendered":"The AI boom tests the limits of growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/b41As_6UlRpsVTVrK0JD2iyRt2I=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/15\/1784144642865.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Electricity demand is becoming the clearest measure of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/technology\/automation-and-ai\" target=\"_blank\">AI<\/a> industry&#8217;s extraordinary expansion \u2014 and a test of how long that pace can last.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> The industry&#8217;s pursuit of ever-larger models is fueling debate over whether they will deliver enough value to justify mounting environmental and financial costs.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>Google, Microsoft and Amazon all highlighted improved energy and water efficiency in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/10\/ai-big-tech-transparency-electricity-water-use\" target=\"_blank\">sustainability reports<\/a> released in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But those gains are being overwhelmed by overall growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Stunning stat:<\/strong> Google&#8217;s electricity consumption rose more than 140% between 2021 and 2025 \u2014 already exceeding the outer bounds of projected growth modeled in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2542435123003653\" target=\"_blank\">2023 paper<\/a> by Alex de Vries-Gao, a researcher at VU Amsterdam and founder of online platform Digiconomist.<\/p>\n<p><strong>By the numbers: <\/strong>That scale of growth is across the board.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>De Vries-Gao estimates that the amount of new combined electricity demand added by Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta between 2022 and 2025 is roughly twice New York City&#8217;s annual electricity consumption.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>The huge amount of energy required for AI<strong> <\/strong>is raising<strong> <\/strong>questions about whether the industry&#8217;s push toward ever-larger models is producing benefits that justify these growing resource demands.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying:<\/strong> In recent interviews, top sustainability executives at tech companies didn&#8217;t directly answer if they would reconsider growth in the face of environmental concerns.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We are deeply committed to responsibly managing the environmental footprint of our operations,&#8221; said Kate Brandt, Google&#8217;s chief sustainability officer.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Our goal is not simply to slow the growth of environmental impacts,&#8221; said Melanie Nakagawa, Microsoft&#8217;s chief sustainability officer. Instead, the aim is &#8220;to reduce the intensity of each unit of growth over time, so that future growth really does become increasingly decoupled from that future impact.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>State of play:<\/strong> Much of the AI industry has operated on the assumption that ever-greater scale is going to lead to better performance \u2014 and ultimately more profits, said Boris Gamazaychikov, who co-founded Sustainable AI Group, a research and advisory firm that helps companies address the environmental impacts of AI.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The other side:<\/strong> The potential for AI to improve people&#8217;s lives<strong> <\/strong>and curb emissions is playing an increasingly large role in tech companies&#8217; sustainability messaging.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Google devoted more of this year&#8217;s sustainability report to AI&#8217;s environmental benefits, highlighting uses from autonomous vehicles to scaling solar power.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Yes, but: <\/strong>Many of the AI applications companies highlight today rely on relatively narrow models rather than the frontier models driving much of today&#8217;s data-center expansion, according to de Vries-Gao and Gamazaychikov.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>AI companies argue advances in frontier models eventually enable many downstream applications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom in: <\/strong>Gamazaychikov says AI models should disclose standardized energy-efficiency metrics, similar to fuel economy ratings for cars, so customers can compare how much computing different tasks require.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;You don&#8217;t need a Hummer to go to the grocery store,&#8221; Gamazaychikov said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Friction point:<\/strong> Environmental concerns may ultimately matter most through their economic consequences. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Daron Acemoglu, an MIT economics professor and Nobel laureate, argues that if investment continues to outpace demand, the AI boom could eventually slow on economic grounds.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Flashback:<\/strong> Some of the world&#8217;s greatest technological breakthroughs \u2014 canals, railroads, the internet \u2014 sparked enormous investment booms, with capital pouring into new infrastructure years before the economic payoff became clear, Axios&#8217; Courtenay Brown <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/30\/ai-boom-bis-warning\" target=\"_blank\">recently wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The AI boom appears even more extreme than those earlier investment waves, according to a recent analysis by an international group of central banks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What we&#8217;re watching: <\/strong>&#8220;The argument from the industry insiders is &#8216;Just wait \u2014 the next two, three, four years are going to be different,'&#8221; Acemoglu said. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The industry posits that this &#8220;technology is so exceptional, that it&#8217;s going to buck all of these trends.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line: <\/strong>&#8220;I find that not completely convincing,&#8221; Acemoglu said. &#8220;But it cannot be completely ruled out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Electricity demand is becoming the clearest measure of the AI industry&#8217;s extraordinary expansion \u2014 and a test of how long that pace can last. Why it matters: The industry&#8217;s pursuit of ever-larger models is fueling debate over whether they will deliver enough value to justify mounting environmental and financial costs. Driving the news: Google, Microsoft&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/b41As_6UlRpsVTVrK0JD2iyRt2I=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/15\/1784144642865.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}