ADNOC Microsoft Partnership Targets AI Data Centre Power
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has partnered with Microsoft to explore renewable energy solutions for AI data centres, marking a shift in how oil companies are starting to approach technology infrastructure power requirements.
The partnership, announced at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, includes Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar), a renewable energy developer in which ADNOC holds a stake.
Such a collaboration addresses the growing electricity demands from AI workloads, which have increased substantially as companies deploy machine learning models requiring significant computational power.
Under the agreement, the companies will evaluate opportunities for Masdar to supply renewable energy to Microsoft’s data centres.
The partnership will explore using AI technologies to advance carbon capture and storage projects, which remove carbon dioxide from industrial processes and store it underground, as well as low-carbon ammonia and hydrogen production facilities.
ADNOC expands AI deployment across oil operations
This partnership is extending beyond data centre power to include accelerating AI deployment across ADNOC’s oil and gas operations to enhance operational efficiency and support methane reduction initiatives.
ADNOC is ultimately aiming to achieve near-zero methane emissions by 2030, aligning with the Oil & Gas Decarbonisation Charter – an agreement that has been signed by major energy companies.
The AI systems are designed to strengthen biodiversity monitoring capabilities to track environmental impacts across the company’s operations. This operational focus reflects the partnership’s dual approach of powering AI infrastructure whilst using AI to reduce emissions across energy operations.
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, ADNOC’s Managing Director and Group CEO, who also serves as Chairman of Masdar and the UAE's Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, says the collaboration addresses “three megatrends” of global south development, energy transformation and AI growth.
“AI is an era-defining innovation that is altering the pace of change itself – resetting the boundaries of productivity and the possibilities of progress,” he says. “It is also creating a power surge that nobody accounted for just 18 months ago.”
Microsoft hopes to address AI energy challenges
The partnership reflects industry efforts to balance AI development with climate commitments as technology companies face increasing electricity requirements from AI workloads.
Training large language models (LLMs) and running AI applications require substantial computational resources, driving up energy consumption at data centres.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's Vice Chair and President, says the collaboration addresses the need to “meet the AI moment while transitioning to a more sustainable economy”.
He adds: “In a world that will need more electricity, not less, it's imperative that we generate more carbon-free energy to power AI and use that very same technology to increase capacity, optimise transmission and expand energy access to communities around the world.”
The agreement also follows publication of the Powering Possible: AI and Energy for a Sustainable Future report, co-authored by ADNOC, Masdar and Microsoft. The research examines how AI technologies can accelerate the transition to lower-carbon energy systems whilst meeting growing electricity demands from AI infrastructure.
Delivering clean energy solutions
Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Masdar’s CEO, describes AI as playing “a key role in accelerating the energy transition” through the partnership's clean energy delivery to data centres.
Masdar’s involvement provides the renewable energy infrastructure component of the partnership, connecting Microsoft's data centre requirements with clean energy generation capabilities.
ADNOC’s existing AI implementations have produced quantifiable results in emissions reduction and financial returns. Between 2022 and 2023, the company’s AI tools prevented the emission of one million tonnes of carbon dioxide whilst generating US$500m in value during 2023.
These results support ADNOC’s target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2045, which requires substantial reductions in both direct emissions from operations and indirect emissions from energy consumption.
The company has been deploying AI systems across upstream oil and gas production, refining operations and petrochemical manufacturing.
Ultimately, the partnership hopes to demonstrate how traditional energy companies are eager to reposition themselves within the technology infrastructure ecosystem – to provide both renewable energy generation and AI-powered optimisation solutions for data centre operations.
Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi says: “We look forward to working with ADNOC, Microsoft and other key partners, to help AI achieve its potential by delivering clean energy to the data centres that will power the AI future.”
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