Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud are starting off 2024 with major investments in their data center operations. But these hyperscale cloud providers have acknowledged that more data centers lead to increased energy consumption – and that continued investment is needed in sustainability.

AWS announced earlier this month that it will invest $35 billion to build multiple cloud data center campuses in Virginia by 2040, and another $15 billion into its two existing data center regions in Japan by 2027. On a scale perhaps congruent to its share of the cloud services market, Google Cloud also shared plans to invest $1 billion to build a new data center in the U.K.

The new Virginia data centers will position AWS for long-term growth in the state and create more than 1,000 jobs by 2040. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said the state will “continue to encourage the development of this new generation of data center campuses.” He cited “robust utility infrastructure, lower costs, great livability and highly educated workforces” as the deal’s major advantages.

AWS is also targeting the growing Japanese cloud services market with a $15 billion investment in its Tokyo and Osaka data centers.  Combined with its previous investments in Japan, this move will bring AWS’ total investment in the country to $25.5 billion by 2027. This investment is expected to contribute nearly $40 billion to Japan’s GDP and more than 30,000 jobs each year, according to an AWS Economic Impact Study for Japan.

“The adoption of digital technology has become a source of a country’s competitiveness,” Japan’s former digital minister Takuya Hirai said. “Data centers play an important role to this end.”

This investment will create a ripple effect across Japanese industries and enable “the ability to access and adopt new, emerging and transformational digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) [AI] and machine learning (ML) [ML],” AWS president for its Japan operations, Tadao Nagasaki, said.

While Google Cloud’s $1 billion investment might pale in comparison, it’s another valiant effort to stay in the game. “It’s vital that we invest in the technical infrastructure needed to support innovation and tech-led growth,” Google VP Debbie Weinstein said.

To that point, the new 33-acre data center campus in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire will bring much-needed compute capacity to U.K. businesses, support AI innovation and ensure reliable delivery of Google Cloud services to customers in the U.K.

Google Cloud’s data center investment is designed to support the broader economy and represent its dedication to serving the U.K. – “a key country for our business and a pioneering world leader in AI, technology and science,” according to Weinstein.

In a nod to the additional stress these new data centers and high-performance workloads will add to global energy grids, both AWS and Google Cloud emphasized their investments in and commitments to renewable energy.

Google Cloud aims to run its entire data center estate on Carbon-Free Energy at all times by 2030. Google posits CFE as crucial both to itself and to the global economy, and it encourages companies to go beyond simply buying clean energy in the form of power purchase agreements, for example.

“To achieve 24/7 CFE, both for our own operations and for economies more broadly, we must do more than just purchase clean energy – we must work to transform electricity systems,” Caroline Golin and Nick Pearson, who lead Google’s energy market development and policy, explained in a blog post.

The hyperscaler claims its data centers, while not the most populous, are “some of the most efficient in the world,” Weinstein said. Google Cloud’s 2022 offshore wind energy deal with Engie, for instance, will add 100 MW of renewable energy to the U.K. grid – and put the company’s U.K. operations on track to reach 90% CFE by 2025.

In addition to using renewable energy, Google Cloud’s new data center will be designed for off-site heat recovery. This reuse of the heat generated by computing “presents an opportunity for energy conservation that benefits the local community,” according to the company.

These sustainability initiatives also serve to attract customers, who tend to see “Google's commitment to decarbonize and build sustainable data centers as a crucial element in reducing the carbon impact of their digital infrastructure,” Weinstein said.

AWS claims to be similarly committed to decarbonizing the economy with goals of reaching net-zero carbon emissions in its operations by 2040 and 100% renewable energy use by 2025.

Beginning in 2014, AWS has invested in four off-site renewable energy projects that will produce an estimated capacity of 120,000 MWh of clean energy in Japan.

Beyond supporting renewable energy, AWS claims the nature of its cloud is inherently more sustainable that on-premises computing. 451 Research found AWS' public cloud to be five-times more energy efficient than a private data center in the Asia-Pacific region (including Japan).

Organizations that migrate workloads to AWS from an on-premises environment today can expect to reduce their carbon emissions by 80% on average. Once AWS has hit its target of 100% renewable energy, however, that figure rises to 93%, according to the report.