Apple’s Carbon Footprint Will Jump With AI

By Douglas McIntyre  •  September 10, 2025
ATC Comm Photo Pexels

Most of Apple’s claims about its carbon emissions targets have turned out to be true. However, the carbon footprint of the Apple Watch is rising. Unlike with other Apple products, the fact sheet for Watch does not mention carbine neutrality.

Reccessary, ran a report titled “Apple scales back carbon-neutral claims as Watch emissions edge higher.”

But, that is not the main event. Apple plans to create its own AI products or may use Google’s Gemini. AI energy use is so huge that Apple will be tied to an industry, and its suppliers, who are far from carbon neutral, and may never reach that level.

Google’s AI push is an example, particularly if there is an Apple partnership. Google parent Alphabet plans to invest $75 billion to $85 billion in data centers this year. These data centers draw so much electricity that industry experts say there are not enough sources of renewables to power them completely. It is also expected that the construction of these will lead to greater use of oil and coal. 

AI Energy Use

Megaticch companies have made it clear that they have given up on net-zero targets. The race for AI is an existential one for corporations that include Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and OpenAI

MIT News recently reported, “The computational power required to train generative AI models that often have billions of parameters, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, can demand a staggering amount of electricity, which leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions and pressures on the electric grid.”

Apple will need to get the energy to power its AI products, which will be launched next year. Those sources will be far from carbon neutral.

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