AI boom strains green transition: Government faces a tough choice

At a conference in Zagreb, where industry professionals from around the world have gathered to discuss developments in data centers, the same word comes up again and again: AI. It is mentioned, among other places, on a tour of the data center manufacturer Vertiv, which now has a sharp focus on meeting the explosive global interest in training artificial intelligence.

Investments have tripled

In recent years, the tech industry has bet massively on developing AI. Last year, the four big hyperscalers, Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon, together invested $280.5 billion in new data centers. This year, the figure has risen to $630 billion, of which 77 percent goes to the development of artificial intelligence.

The EU has also entered the race and wants to build up to seven so-called AI gigafactories to make Europe less dependent on the services of American tech giants. Over the summer, the Danish government decided to reserve computing power in one of the upcoming gigafactories for DKK 750 million.

Green transition lags behind

But according to the presentations at the conference, everything suggests that the AI ambitions require more than the green transition can keep up with. The global AI race is driving demand for data centers that is growing faster than the green power supply can be built out.

For Danish companies and authorities betting on AI, this means the question of where the computing power comes from, and how green it is, is likely to become more pressing in the time ahead. The government thus faces a choice between maintaining its green profile and securing access to the computing power that the AI push requires.