Microsoft vows to pay its own way to power data centres

Detailed summary

Without relying on government subsidies or driving up costs for other electricity consumers.

Microsoft aims to find ways to power its data centres without relying on government subsidies or driving up costs for other electricity consumers.

“We don’t want other customers to be paying for our growth,” Noelle Walsh, Microsoft’s president of cloud operations and innovation, said at a BloombergNEF conference in Houston. “We will pay our own way.”

The tech giant plans to build $117 billion of computing capacity this year for artificial intelligence and cloud services as data centres emerge as a key concern across the US, including in this month’s midterm elections that gave Democrats control of Congress.

Microsoft, the longtime backer of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, maintains that its “community first” approach to data centres means voters should benefit from their construction rather than suffer from negative effects.

Microsoft is working with Chevron Corp. and Joulent LLC — a company founded by investment firm Engine No. 1 — on a giant behind-the-meter data and power project in West Texas that has been held up by Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s moratorium on new data-centre approvals. Abbott was defeated by Democrat Gina Hinojosa in the recent election, with his opponent pledging to take a potentially tougher stance on permitting.

Even so, Chevron is still aiming to get the development, named Project Kilby, up and running by 2028 and fully operational by 2031.

Any project that doesn’t provide a net benefit to its communities is “doomed to fail,” said Jeff Gustavson, Chevron’s president of new energies. Kilby will provide jobs and stable tax revenues to West Texas, he said.

‘His appointment ensures that we continue to build organisational capacity, with the right mix of skills, experience and perspectives to deliver BHP’s strategy,’ Craig said’.

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