{"id":461469,"date":"2026-08-09T11:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T18:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=461469"},"modified":"2026-08-09T11:03:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T18:03:22","slug":"green-lament-that-trillion-dollar-ai-investment-could-have-been-spent-on-renewables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=461469","title":{"rendered":"Green Lament: That Trillion Dollar AI Investment Could have been Spent on Renewables"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026 That $1 trillion could have been used for anything. It could have been invested in renewables.  \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nobody Asked for AI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

BY GRACE BLAKELEY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Big Tech companies have spent $1 trillion<\/a> on capital investment since the start of the artificial-intelligence boom. Pretty much all that investment has been used to build data centers, purchase the chips that power those data centers, and construct the energy systems that fuel and cool them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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That $1 trillion could have been used for anything. It could have been invested in renewables. It could have been used to develop lifesaving new drugs. It could have been used to build housing, public infrastructure, or anything else human beings need to survive and thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, it has been channeled into constructing energy-draining, water-absorbing data centers that power large language models (LLMs) built on the theft of millions of people\u2019s creative work, which consistently produce incorrect responses and drive many users mad in the process. It\u2019s hard to think of a worse use of society\u2019s shared resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of hype and trillions of dollars, the AI boom will leave us with a captured economy, a corrupted democracy, and a devastated environment. We\u2019ll be told that this is just how markets work \u2014 sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down. But this narrative obscures how decisions are really made in capitalist economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I showed in my book, Vulture Capitalism<\/a>, capitalist economies are characterized by pervasive central planning. Monopolistic corporations work with corrupt politicians to decide who gets what, while using \u201cthe market\u201d as a veil to conceal their power. The AI boom is no different. A few powerful capitalists decided that we would spend several years devoting all our time and money toward the development and roll out of AI \u2014 and so we did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2026\/08\/ai-llms-monopoly-bubble-capital<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201ccapitalist economies are characterized by pervasive central planning\u201d<\/em>. Yep that sounds right \u2013 not. I mean heavily interventionist governments like the European Union frequently try to pick winners, and just as frequently get it wrong, if Europe\u2019s dramatic decline from 90% of the USA\u2019s GDP to 65% over the last 10-15 years is anything to judge by.<\/a> And I\u2019d hesitate to call a government which absorbs just under 50% of the products of people\u2019s labor \u201ccapitalist\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies try to plan for the future, and very large companies will have plans which affect a lot of people. But to describe this as \u201ccentral planning\u201d seems a stretch \u2013 except maybe in jurisdictions where companies effectively operate as an extension of government policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair I haven\u2019t read Grace\u2019s book Vulture Capitalism<\/a>, so perhaps I have not understood the context of her claim. Perhaps she means the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US Government has also tried picking winners, though not to the same extent as the EU. Another important difference is some US Government picks did actually win. The technological spinoffs from the space programme likely ushered in the current era of US economic exceptionalism. Let\u2019s hope the US Government\u2019s dalliance with AI investment<\/a> is one of the good picks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for spending that trillion dollars which was invested in AI, spending it instead on renewables, I doubt that would have made any difference other than to make us all poorer, given the trillions of dollars which have already been wasted on renewables for no tangible benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve said elsewhere, AI is creating substantial productivity benefits, so at least we\u2019re getting something back for all that investment in AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why Artificial Intelligence will Win the Green Energy War<\/a><\/blockquote>