Amazon's AI ambitions will soon be powered by a gas-fired power plant in Texas; a center that, according to a New York Times report, has the potential to become the largest single source of atmospheric pollution in the United States.
The use of such power plants in data center projects is on the rise, while their generated pollutants, besides accelerating climate change, pose a serious threat to public health and increase the risk of heart disease, lung disease, and cancer. Despite public demands for more rigorous environmental assessments, the Trump administration, with a deregulatory approach, seeks to accelerate these projects and even bypass legal licensing processes.
This move by Amazon comes at a time when Elon Musk's xAI company had previously faced intense social backlash for using gas turbines to power the massive "Colossus" data center. Now, Amazon's off-grid data centers have also become the focus of protests by environmental activists.