Tech firm Cohere: AI must increase gas output to power more AI
cohere
| Source: Mastodon | Original article
Cohere warns that expanding AI workloads will increase gas demand, underscoring a direct link between the tech sector’s data‑center growth and fossil‑fuel consumption.
Cohere, the Canadian AI‑software firm, announced that it will deploy its generative‑AI tools to help oil and gas companies locate and extract additional natural‑gas reserves. The plan, disclosed in an interview with DeSmog, frames the move as a response to the “explosive” electricity demand from data centres that are scaling up AI workloads. Cohere’s strategy is underpinned by a $1.6 billion investment from the Liberal government led by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, and the company is now actively pitching its services to the fossil‑fuel sector.
The announcement spotlights a growing convergence between the tech and energy industries. As AI models become larger and more compute‑intensive, data‑centre operators are turning to dispatchable power sources—chiefly natural gas—to meet peak loads. Industry analysts have noted a “gas‑to‑power boom” in 2026, with midstream firms building private grids to feed AI clusters. Cohere’s entry into the upstream side of that supply chain could accelerate the construction of new gas‑fired plants, reinforcing natural‑gas’s role in the energy mix at a time when many jurisdictions are seeking to decarbonise.
Watchers will be looking for how regulators and climate‑policy bodies respond to a tech firm explicitly linking AI growth to increased fossil‑fuel extraction. Market participants will gauge whether oil‑and‑gas majors adopt Cohere’s AI‑driven prospecting tools, and whether the government’s backing triggers further public‑funded AI‑energy initiatives. The next few months could reveal whether this partnership reshapes investment flows toward new gas infrastructure or provokes pushback from environmental groups demanding a cleaner AI future.
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