Amazon Trials Carbon-Removal Material to Tackle AI Emissions

Amazon is planning to trial a new carbon-removal material in its data centres to address the rising emissions associated with the artificial intelligence (AI) systems they support, according to Orbital Materials, the startup behind the innovation.

This initiative comes as data centres increasingly require more energy to sustain AI development and more water for cooling, presenting challenges for companies like Amazon, which has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud-computing division and the largest provider in the world by revenue, plans to pilot the innovative material at one data centre starting in 2025. This forms part of a three-year partnership with Orbital Materials, which also includes access to AWS technology and open-source AI tools for AWS customers.

Jonathan Godwin, Orbital’s Chief Executive, noted in an interview that the carbon-filtering substance was designed by AI and developed by Orbital Materials. “It’s like a sponge at the atomic level. Each cavity in the sponge has a specific size opening that interacts well with CO2 but not with other substances.”

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The material promises cost efficiency, adding an estimated 10% to the hourly cost of renting a GPU chip for training advanced AI models—significantly less than the cost of carbon offsets, Godwin noted.

Howard Gefen, General Manager of AWS Energy & Utilities, stated that the collaboration would drive sustainable innovation. However, Godwin declined to disclose the financial details of the agreement.

Orbital Materials, with operations in Princeton, New Jersey, and London, established a lab roughly a year ago to synthesise AI-simulated substances.

The startup aims to expand its work with AWS, using AI to develop materials that address challenges such as water consumption and chip cooling in data centres.

Godwin co-founded the 20-person company, supported by Radical Ventures and Nvidia’s venture capital arm, after leading materials science initiatives for Alphabet.

REUTERS/Chidimma Gold