“[Data center operators’] belief is that the value being delivered by the servers is much, much more than the cost of running these inefficient power plants all the time,” Koomey says.
Gas projects developed as part of the Stargate Project, a massive, multicompany AI effort originally started to build out infrastructure for OpenAI, also represent a potential emissions bombshell on WIRED’s list. Stargate campuses are being built across multiple states, including Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Permit documents for just three Stargate-affiliated natural gas projects—one to power a data center campus near the project’s headquarters in Abilene, Texas, and two to power Project Jupiter, a campus in New Mexico—show that they have a combined potential to emit more than 24 million tons of greenhouse gases each year.
"We are committed to protecting ratepayers while building the infrastructure needed for U.S. AI leadership,” OpenAI spokesperson Aaron McLear said in a statement. “Where near term natural gas is required to ensure reliable power, we work with partners to use modern, efficient generation while helping accelerate clean power and grid modernization.”
Oracle spokesperson Julia Allyn Fishel told WIRED that there is a “modification” to the Project Jupiter application currently in progress, “which is expected to materially lower emissions.” The company did not provide the new emissions estimates, which the New Mexico Environment Department have not yet made public.
“Oracle is committed to paying our own way on energy costs while implementing the best energy solution for each community so that ratepayers’ bills and electric grid reliability are not impacted by our AI data centers,” Fishel said in a statement.
A fourth gas plant on the main Stargate campus in Abilene has, according to application documents, the potential to permit more than 7.8 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents each year. This power plant is being built by Crusoe for use by Microsoft. The companies announced in late March that Crusoe would be building new buildings on the Abilene campus, including a power plant, to support Microsoft’s AI infrastructure. (Microsoft declined to comment.)
There are projects with an even bigger potential carbon footprint than Stargate. Outside of Amarillo, Texas, White House darling Fermi is building what it calls the President Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus, a data center campus with a target of 17 gigawatts. Fermi continuously emphasizes its use of what it calls “clean” natural gas. But documents show that the maximum emissions for the two gas projects combined could be more than 40.3 million tons of CO2 equivalents each year, more than the yearly emissions of all the power sources in the state of Connecticut.
About five hours south of Amarillo, near the city of Fort Stockton, Pacifico Energy is developing what it claims is the largest single energy project in the country: a 7.2 gigawatt data center campus, powered by a gas project that is permitted to emit more than 33 million tons of greenhouse gases each year. (Pacifico did not respond to a request for comment.)