21/05/2024
https://money.udn.com/money/story/122337/7977424?from=edn_courselist_vip When faced with the dual challenge of developing energy-intensive artificial intelligence (AI) while striving for net-zero emissions, how do big tech companies respond?
In 2020, Microsoft pledged to achieve carbon negativity by 2030, vowing to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits.
However, in a sustainability report released last week, Microsoft disclosed that its emissions have surged nearly 30% over the past four years. This increase is largely attributed to the construction of data centers necessary for AI and cloud computing, a development the company had not fully anticipated.
Microsoft's situation highlights the challenge of balancing AI advancement with emission targets. As a leader in generative AI and the world’s most valuable compan, Microsoft acknowledges that emissions from its supply chain and other indirect sources pose significant obstacles to achieving its carbon-negative goal.
The company will now require “select scale, high-volume suppliers to use 100% carbon-free electricity by 2030”.
Among Microsoft's Taiwan suppliers, only MediaTek, Delta Electronics, and ASUS will meet the new standards. Other manufacturers, such as Pegatron, Foxconn, and Quanta, pledge to use 50% or slightly more renewable electricity by 2030.
If these suppliers fail to align with Microsoft's 100% renewable energy target by the 2030 deadline, it could mark a critical juncture where some Taiwanese firms might lose a significant client.
With or without policy encouragement from the government, Taiwanese manufacturers are under urgent pressure from customers to adopt renewable energy at any cost. The real issue is whether the new Lai Ching-te government can meet the industry's renewable energy demands in less than four years.
Microsoft has fired the first shot in advancing the net-zero agenda. It remains to be seen which tech giant will follow suit, but the pressure on Taiwan's electric sector to reduce carbon emissions will only grow.
既要發展高耗電的人工智慧(AI),又要達到淨零排放,當科技大廠碰到這種魚與熊掌都要的情況,會怎麼辦?