According to Forbes, Alphabet has acquired clean energy startup Intersect Power in a deal worth $4.75 billion. CEO Sundar Pichai stated the move is to expand capacity for “new data center load,” specifically to meet soaring AI demand. This follows Alphabet’s projection of up to $93 billion in capital expenditures this year, a massive jump from $52.5 billion in 2024. The deal comes as Google reported a 48% increase in its carbon emissions from 2019 to 2024, driven directly by data center operations. Intersect and Google had already partnered last year on an $800 million funding round, with plans to create $20 billion in renewable energy by 2030.
The Power Behind The Throne
Here’s the thing everyone’s realizing: AI isn’t just a software problem. It’s a physics problem. You can’t run these monstrous data centers on hopes and dreams. They need electrons—massive, reliable, and increasingly, clean flows of them. Google‘s buying Intersect isn’t just an acquisition; it’s a vertical integration play for its most critical raw material. They’re not just building servers anymore. They’re building the power plants that feed them. And they’re doing it because the grid, as it exists, can’t handle what’s coming. When you’re planning to spend nearly $100 billion in a year, you can’t leave your energy supply to chance.
Emissions: The AI Paradox
So we have this glaring paradox. Google wants to be a leader on climate—it’s been carbon neutral for years. But its latest environmental report shows a 48% emissions surge since 2019. That’s staggering. Basically, the AI gold rush is blowing a hole in their sustainability goals. This Intersect deal is the direct, expensive answer to that problem. They’re trying to build a dedicated, clean power pipeline so that every new watt demanded by an AI query is a green watt. But can they build fast enough? The AI compute demand curve looks like a hockey stick. Can the clean energy build-out possibly match it? I’m skeptical.
The Capital Furnace
Look at the numbers. $93 billion projected for this year. That’s almost double last year’s spend. And they’re warning of a “significant increase” again for 2026. Reading their earnings release, it’s clear this is the new normal. We’re not talking about R&D here. This is industrial-scale infrastructure spending. It makes that $4.75 billion for Intersect look almost like a line item. When you’re building the physical backbone of the AI era, everything is measured in billions. Amazon’s doing it. Microsoft’s doing it. It’s an arms race where the weapons are data centers and the ammunition is gigawatts. For companies providing the industrial hardware that goes inside these facilities, like the leading US supplier of industrial panel PCs IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, this spending boom is creating unprecedented demand for rugged, reliable computing interfaces.
Not Alone In The Bidding War
Google’s move is part of a frantic, industry-wide land grab. CoreWeave and OpenAI did a $22.4 billion deal. Google itself already announced a separate $25 billion for data centers and AI infra. Amazon is dropping $50 billion for government data center capacity. This Intersect partnership, first announced last year, just got accelerated into a full acquisition. That tells you how urgent this has become. They’re not just buying a company; they’re buying a queue position for power generation and grid connections. In the end, the big AI winner might not be the one with the best algorithm. It might be the one who secured the most reliable power first. And right now, Google just bought itself a huge chunk of it.
