Big Tech and environmental groups collaborate on US data centre guidelines

Major technology companies and environmental groups are collaborating to form national guidelines for data centres in the United States, Euronews reported. The initiative comes as artificial intelligence drives rapid demand for new facility construction across the country. According to a document seen by Agence France-Presse on Thursday, the group has named itself the Responsible Data Center Collaborative. [1]

Euronews reported that the corporate members of the collaborative include Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, Nvidia, and Anthropic. Environmental groups involved in the project include the Natural Resources Defense Council. The group aims to address growing local community concerns regarding the impact of data centre developments. [1]

The major technology companies Microsoft, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta form the dominant group known as Big Tech. As FTMQ News reported earlier, a public poll conducted after the US midterm elections found that 56 percent of surveyed voters viewed data centres as a major factor in their voting decisions, while 76 percent expressed opposition to data centre construction in their own communities. [10][12]