Microsoft inks 10.5-gigawatt renewable energy deal to help power its AI future

Microsoft and Brookfield Asset Management came to an agreement yesterday for the latter to provide 10.5 gigawatts of renewable energy to the former as one of the largest energy purchases by a single company to date.

Microsoft’s new partnership with Brookfield Asset Management’s energy division stands as almost eight times larger than any other deal of similar reference and could total up to $17 billion in investment to build up towards the 10.5-gigawatt goal between 2026 and 2030 according to an estimate from Bloomberg.

In a press release from Brookfield, the company explains that the initial agreement is aimed at purchasing the energy for Microsoft for use the U.S. and Europe, but also leaves open an opportunity to expand the partnership into other regions that include Asia-Pacific, India, and Latin America.

In addition to helping Microsoft move closer to its carbon neutral commitments, the Brookfield partnership doubles as fuel for its massive AI investments which require absorbent amounts of energy to deliver the nascent cloud and server pre generative AI features the company has been pitching for the past two years.

Brookfield acknowledges the energy purchases are, in part, an answer to the growing concern of how to power the ambitious AI experiences companies are pitching to both customers and investors.

As the global trend of digitalization and the adoption of AI continues to drive growth in demand for electricity, we are thrilled to collaborate with Microsoft to support their customer demand with the build-out of over 10.5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity.

Connor Teskey
CEO of Brookfield Renewable and President of Brookfield Asset Management

While it doesn’t get into the dollar and cents of the deal, Brookfield does outline a few ways it will address getting Microsoft the energy it needs through wind, solar, and carbon free energy generation technologies.

With AI expected to weigh on current electrical grids as much as tenfold over the next couple of years, Microsoft and others are looking to get out ahead of demand with deals such as this.