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Oklahoma City – Amazon and Nvidia He told an oil and gas executive room this week that all options are on the table to feed artificial intelligence, including fossil fuels such as natural gas.
The technological and energy industries gathered in Oklahoma City at the Hamm Institute for American Energy to discuss how the United States can meet the growing energy needs of AI data centers.
Large technology companies have mainly invested in renewable energy in an effort to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, but now they sail for a political environment changed. President Donald Trump has launched American commitments to combat climate change, since it seeks to increase fossil fuel production, particularly natural gas.
Now there is a growing public recognition of the technology industry that gas will be needed, at least in the short term, to help AI.
“To have the energy we need for the grid, it will adopt an earlier approach for a period of time,” said Kevin Miller, vice president of Amazon Global Data Centers, Duration said in the discussion panel on Thursday. “We are not surprised by the fact that we will need to add a thermal generation to meet short -term needs.”
Amazon is still focused on trimming its carbon emissions, said Miller. He is the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy and is investing in advanced nuclear and carbon capture technology to reduce the environmental impact of its energy consumption, the executive said.
But those advanced technologies will not connect until the 2030s and Amazon needs a constant and safe power now, Miller said.
“We are very explicit that satisfying customer capacity demands is first and foremost in our priority list, so having access to energy is first and foremost what we focus on,” said Miller. “And we have the goal of being the net-zero carbon as a company by 2040 and we are very focused on that.”
Nvidia also focuses on the environmental impact, but wants “all the options on the table”, since AI faces an energy crunch, said Josh Parker, senior director of corporate sustainability of the chips manufacturer.
“At the end of the day, we need energy. We just need energy,” Parker said on the panel. “We have some customers who really prioritize clean energy and some customers who don’t care so much,” said the executive.
The co -founder of Anthrope, Jack Clark, asked that data centers developers were realistic about energy sources that are currently notable. Anthrope estimates that 50 new power gigawatts are needed by 2027, equivalent to about 50 nuclear reactors. The demand for AI can help boost the development of “new and novel sources” of long -term power, he said.
The idea of using coal, however, was with restlessness. Recently, Trump signed an order that aims to boost coal production, citing the AI of demand. Amazon and Nvidia executives did not respond directly when the panel were asked if they thought the coal had a roles game to boost the AI.
“You have a broader set of options than only coal,” Clark said. “We would certainly consider it, but I don’t think I would say it is at the top of our list.”