# Amazon’s New AI Data Center Is So Enormous That It Appears It Will Become the Largest Single Source of Pollution in the United States > Source: > Published: 2026-08-11 14:09:03+00:00 Tech Goliaths are scrambling to build as much AI computing capacity as they possibly can, come hell or [low water](https://futurism.com/ai-data-center-water). One of the dominant players in the space, Amazon Web Services, has its heart set on an AI data center so enormous that it could easily become the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. According [to the New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/08/climate/amazon-data-center-texas-pollution.html), Amazon has confirmed its investment in a massive gas-burning power plant in Texas, meant to supply up to 7.65 gigawatts of energy to a planned data center in Pecos County. Should it come online as planned, the plant’s 35 turbines would be allowed to spew 33 million tons of CO2 a year, the *NYT*notes, which would easily make it the largest single fount of emissions in the country. That’s a stunning amount of carbon exhaust, putting that single data center in a league with [entire countries](https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-by-country/) including Switzerland, Ireland, and Bulgaria. It would also be in stark defiance of Amazon’s stated climate goals, which center on reaching [net-zero carbon emissions](https://sustainabilitymag.com/news/amazon-the-climate-pledge-catalysing-net-zero-by-2040) by 2040. That’s not lost on the tech giant. But as Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan told the *NYT*, the “world looks different now than when we co-founded the climate pledge.” Even without the new Pecos County plant, Amazon’s emissions are staggering. The company recently disclosed a [record increase](https://futurism.com/science-energy/amazon-spewing-record-carbon-emissions-ai-data-centers) in its total emissions last year, with company-wide electricity usage rising by 34 percent across 2025. That the company is blatantly papering over its previous climate commitments isn’t a shocker at this point, in other words, as the company reaches new emission highs with each passing year. **More on Amazon: **[Jeff Bezos Harshly Criticized for $200 Million Pledge to Protect the World’s Most Endangered Species](https://futurism.com/future-society/jeff-bezos-leonardo-dicaprio-greenwashing-amazon-pollution)