Amazon: Balancing AI Growth, Data Centres and Sustainability

Amazon is expanding its data centre footprint while investing in the energy and infrastructure needed to support rising demand for cloud computing and AI.

The company's 2025 Sustainability Report outlines how Amazon is pairing growth in AWS and AI services with renewable electricity, water efficiency and operational improvements. It also highlights the increasing role of AI in managing facilities and improving efficiency across its wider business.

For the third consecutive year, Amazon says it has matched all electricity used across its global operations with renewable energy. Its portfolio now includes 712 renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of 42GW.

That energy investment comes alongside continued expansion of Amazon's digital infrastructure. During 2025, the company added more data centre capacity than any other business to support demand for AWS cloud services and AI workloads.

Amazon is also looking beyond renewable generation to strengthen future electricity supply. Last year, it invested in small modular reactor developer X-energy, with the aim of helping add 5GW of new nuclear energy capacity to the US grid by 2039.

AI supports infrastructure operations

Alongside expanding physical infrastructure, Amazon is increasing its use of AI to improve operational performance across its facilities.

The company has deployed AI tools at 820 sites to detect leaks and identify mechanical issues before they become larger maintenance problems. It has also developed an AI system that identifies materials within unsellable or non-donatable products to improve recycling processes.

Kara Hurst, Chief Sustainability Officer at Amazon, says: “For Amazon’s work in sustainability, we laid out our long-term vision starting back in 2015 when we first suggested net-zero goals in a planning meeting, which culminated in setting The Climate Pledge in 2019.

“Sure enough, we’ve encountered tremendous change in each of the seven years since.

"Perhaps none bigger than AI, which is both transforming what's possible–accelerating discovery, optimising systems and unlocking solutions that weren't within reach before–yet also creating new demands for energy, water, and infrastructure.”

Those additional infrastructure requirements are becoming increasingly relevant across the data centre sector as operators balance AI growth with electricity availability, cooling capacity and sustainability targets.

Amazon's report presents AI as both a source of increased infrastructure demand and a tool for improving the efficiency of the systems supporting that growth.

Data centres and water efficiency

Water management also forms part of Amazon's data centre strategy.

According to the report, the company has reached 75% of its target to become water positive across its global data centre operations by 2030.

Amazon also says it achieved its 2027 water-positive goal in India two years ahead of schedule. It attributes this to measures including leak detection technology and on-site wastewater treatment across its direct operations.

“As we recently shared, we’ve been inventing and investing in technology to increase our water usage efficiency across our data centre footprint for many years already, and today our data centres are seven times more water-efficient than the industry average," Kara says. 

“We also have more buildings than any other cloud provider using reclaimed water, and we’re investing in water replenishment projects around the world that have helped us get 75% of the way toward our goal to be water positive by 2030.

“These things don't happen overnight, but I'm proud of where we are and we're pushing to go faster.”

The focus on water efficiency reflects growing attention across the data centre industry on cooling technologies and responsible water use, particularly as larger AI facilities increase demand for high-density computing.

Growth alongside decarbonisation

Amazon's report also tracks wider progress on emissions and logistics as the company continues to expand.

Although total emissions increased by 16% during 2025 as the business grew, Amazon says its carbon intensity has fallen by 38% compared with 2019. The figures indicate that emissions growth is becoming less closely linked with business expansion.

Beyond its data centres, the company increased its electric delivery fleet by 68% during the year. More than 52,700 electric delivery vans transported 2.4 billion packages, while its middle-mile logistics network added more than 360 electric heavy goods vehicles.

Packaging changes also contributed to material reductions. Amazon says updated paper packaging systems helped eliminate 288 million single-use plastic bags in North America, with 73% of regional shipments arriving in packaging that customers can recycle through household collections.

For the data centre sector, the report highlights how energy supply, AI deployment and resource efficiency are becoming closely connected. As Amazon continues expanding AWS infrastructure, its investments in renewable electricity, nuclear generation, water management and operational AI form part of the systems supporting that growth.