Satya Nadella, the executive chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation speaks during the “Microsoft Build: AI Day” event. | Photo by Peerapon Boonyakiat / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

Microsoft just agreed to support the development of 10.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity around the world, a massive amount of electricity to fuel its AI ambitions and climate goals.

For comparison, 10.5 GW of renewable energy amounts to nearly half the amount of solar and wind capacity California had in 2022. This is quite literally a very big deal — effectively the largest corporate agreement to purchase renewable energy to date, according to BloombergNEF. Microsoft inked the agreement yesterday with Brookfield Asset Management, which said the deal is almost eight times bigger than what was previously the single largest corporate power purchase agreement ever signed.

Microsoft is pumping a lot of its resources into AI o…

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