The move comes as the tech giant grapples with the high energy and water consumption of its AI operations. Microsoft's latest sustainability report revealed a 30% increase in water consumption year over year to cool its AI supercomputers. The company has also invested heavily in a partnership with OpenAI, whose AI models require significant energy to train and have been linked to large amounts of carbon emissions.
Key takeaways:
- Microsoft is exploring the use of nuclear technology, specifically 'microreactors' and 'Small Modular Reactors', to power its data centers used by Microsoft Cloud and AI.
- The company has put out calls for a program manager on 'Nuclear Technology' to build a roadmap for the technology's integration.
- Microsoft's AI operations are extremely energy-intensive, with the company's water consumption increasing by 30% year over year to cool its AI supercomputers.
- Studies have shown that AI is responsible for massive amounts of carbon emissions, with OpenAI's GPT-3 model being particularly high in CO2 emissions.