Meeting Surging Demand for AI Memory Chips Has a Climate Cost

The rush to boost production of memory chips to meet fast accelerating demand from artificial intelligence will add to the semiconductor sector’s climate footprint and risks lifting costs of managing emissions.

Higher manufacturing volumes, efforts to deliver more complex and resource-intensive products, and additional production in nations with fossil fuel-reliant power grids will combine to increase the industry’s pollution profile, according to Ottawa-based research firm TechInsights Inc.

Semiconductor manufacturing emissions will climb by about a third to 247 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, the researcher forecasts. That’s higher than annual emissions of scores of countries ...