Microsoft's carbon emissions have climbed by 25 percent, and the company's growing fleet of data centers is the main reason, according to a report from Wired.
The outlet says the expansion of these facilities is driving up Microsoft's use of electricity, and with more power comes more carbon pollution. In other words, the physical infrastructure behind the company's cloud and computing services is consuming energy at a pace that is pushing its overall emissions sharply higher.
Data centers are the warehouses full of servers that keep online services running around the clock. They demand large and steady supplies of electricity, both to run the machines and to keep them cool. As Microsoft builds and operates more of them, its energy footprint grows in step.
Wired frames the 25 percent rise as a massive jump, notable because it runs counter to the climate commitments many large technology companies have publicly embraced. A sudden increase of that size suggests the demands of expansion are outpacing efforts to keep pollution in check.
Why it matters: the same buildout powering modern computing is quietly enlarging the carbon footprint of one of the world's biggest tech companies, showing how hard it is to grow digital infrastructure and cut emissions at the same time.