Ranked: How Dirty Are the Eight Biggest Names in AI

By Haley Zaremba - Aug 14, 2026, 5:00 PM CDT xAI scores just 6 out of 100 on Climate Power's clean energy tracker, nearly 10 times dirtier than the next-worst AI firm, Oracle. Amazon tops the “cleanest” ranking at 68 points, even as it builds a Texas gas plant projected to become the single biggest source of power-related emissions in the U.S. Amazon, Microsoft and Google together emitted 19 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent last year, roughly as much as a third of France. Big Tech companies are quietly moving farther and farther away from their decarbonization goals. Back in 2019, Amazon pledged to become carbon neutral by 2040, thereby setting a goalpost ten years ahead of the Paris climate agreement in a show of dedication to becoming a leader in decarbonization.