OpenAI Strikes AI Deal With Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC at ADIPEC Energy Event
OpenAI has agreed to deploy AI across the operations of Abu Dhabi's state energy firm ADNOC, as tech giants sign gas power deals with Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia. A new study warns AI-driven efficiency in fossil fuels could raise global CO2 emissions.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has struck a deal with Abu Dhabi's state energy company ADNOC to deploy advanced artificial intelligence across its operations. For readers following the WTI oil price and the wider energy sector, the agreement shows how closely AI companies and fossil fuel producers are now tied together.
The announcement came at ADIPEC, an energy industry gathering. It marks the latest step in OpenAI's deepening ties with the United Arab Emirates.
A broader push into oil and gas
OpenAI is not alone. AI firms are racing to build products for some of the richest customers in the world, oil and gas companies. At ADIPEC, technology companies pitched custom AI tools to help run drilling rigs, refineries and other oil assets, and the OpenAI-ADNOC deal was the most prominent example.
The relationship runs both ways. The AI boom is already driving a natural gas surge in the United States, and experts expect large data center operators to extend the life of fossil fuels in the global energy mix. That is happening even as the world keeps breaking clean energy growth records.
Gas contracts for data centers
Big Tech is planning data centers faster than power grids can keep up. Legislation under the Trump administration has also pushed tech companies to supply their own energy for new sites. Funding for nuclear fusion and space-based solar power is part of the response, but in practice the money has flowed mostly into natural gas.
Amazon is building a gas-fired power plant in Texas. If completed under its current plan for seven gas plants, it would be the biggest single source of power-related emissions in the United States.
In August, Nvidia said it would partner with Japan's SoftBank and the US federal government to build the largest fossil-fuel plant in the country. It would power an Ohio project by OpenAI. Microsoft signed a 20-year deal with Chevron for 2.67 gigawatts of natural-gas-fired power for a proposed West Texas data center.
Efficiency gains and emissions
AI advocates argue the technology will save more energy than it uses through efficiency gains across industries. A recent paper in NPJ Climate Action challenges that view. It found that if fossil fuels gain economically from AI at all, emissions enabled by AI will exceed emissions avoided.
Even if fossil fuels and renewables benefit equally, global CO2 emissions would still rise by between 0.47 billion tons and 1.8 billion tons a year. Holly Alpine, one of the paper's co-authors, put the lower end in context: "On the smaller side it's about the emissions of Mexico annually."
Technology companies are still courting oil and gas producers for long-term contracts. The OpenAI-ADNOC agreement is not the first of its kind.
