Advocates raise alarm over Pfas pollution from datacenters amid AI boom

Tech companies' use of Pfas gas at facilities may mean datacenters' climate impact is worse than previously thought

Datacenters' electricity demands have been accused of delaying the US's transition to clean energy and requiring fossil fuel plants to stay online, while their high level of water consumption has also raised alarm. Now public health advocates fear another environmental problem could be linked to them - Pfas forever chemical" pollution.

Big tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon often need datacenters to store servers and networking equipment that process the world's digital traffic, and the artificial intelligence boom is driving demand for more facilities.