Trump pushes coal-powered AI, putting pressure on tech giants

President Donald Trump plans to have Big Tech corporations use coal to power their data centres.

In April, he issued an executive order asking his cabinet to identify coal-powered infrastructure that could support AI data centres and assess whether they can meet the energy demands of tech firms.

Earlier in January, he also explained to the World Economic Forum that he would greenlight power plants for AI under an emergency order and encourage tech companies to use coal as a secondary energy source.

Some tech industry leaders acknowledge they need fossil fuels to meet their energy demands

According to the Energy Information Administration, coal emits more carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour than any other energy source. Thus, the tech industry has been investing more in renewable energy to maintain sustainability goals and reduce emissions.

Nevertheless, tech companies’ new preference for renewable sources cost the coal industry greatly, with a number of coal plants already abandoned in the United States. 

In 2023, roughly 16% of electricity came from burning coal, down from 51% in 2001. However, Trump’s push for expansive coal use could change the downturn in statistics and prove productive for coal miners.

Peabody Energy CEO James Grech, who attended Trump’s executive order ceremony at the White House, believes that coal plants can meet the nation’s electricity demands, including data centres’ energy needs.

He argued that coal plants only supply about 42% of their maximum capacity at the moment and should augment the amount of power produced.

Grech added, “We believe that all coal-powered generators need to defer US coal plant retirements as the situation on the ground has clearly changed. We believe generators should un-retire coal plants that have recently been mothballed.”

Some in the tech industry have also recognised the need for fossil fuel to meet their AI power demands. However, some are leaning more towards natural gas than coal. Natural gas produces less than half the carbon dioxide of coal per kilowatt hour of power.

Kevin Miller, Amazon’s vice president of global data centres, even claimed to get the energy they need, they’ll need to rely on thermal generation in the short term.

At the Oklahoma City Conference, top executives from Amazon, Nvidia and Anthropic could not answer directly when asked whether they would use coal for electricity generation. Miller even argued that the use of coal would depend on the combination of power available and the possible alternatives.

Trump and UAE leaders will build a data centre in Abu Dhabi

President Trump and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to build a massive data centre in Abu Dhabi, which has about 5GW capacity and is the largest data center outside the US.

The two countries want the centre to serve as a regional platform for US hyperscalers. According to the Commerce Department, the data centre will provide low latency services to almost 50% of the global population residing within 2,000 miles of the UAE.

Trump has also signed several AI-related deals with Gulf countries. However, some US lawmakers were not too pleased with his decisions.

For instance, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York criticized the president for backing deals that would transfer advanced US chip technology to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, accusing him of trading sensitive technology for unclear foreign investment pledges.

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