Conference Programme
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available). Note that the schedule is subject to changes.
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Daily Overview |
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Parallel Session 08: Sustainable Systems & Infrastructure Location: Seminar Room 7 (Level 2) Session Chair: Dave Baik, Nanyang Technological University | |
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When Growth Outpaces Sustainability: Infrastructure Constraints in AI-Driven Data Center Expansion University of Southern California, United States of America Firms increasingly make strategic commitments to growth, sustainability, and competitive positioning in domains governed by infrastructure they do not fully control. We examine this tension in the context of AI-driven data center investment, where leading technology firms have committed hundreds of billions of dollars to expand computing capacity while pursuing net-zero targets. Using the November 2022 release of ChatGPT as a shock that heightened competitive urgency, we analyze where firms sited facilities across U.S. electricity grid regions. We find that firms facing greater expansion pressure from AI competition systematically built large-scale facilities in regions with larger existing generation capacity and greater fossil-fuel dependence, resulting in operations within more carbon-intensive electricity systems. This pattern does not reflect diminished sustainability commitments: firms maintained or expanded renewable energy procurement during the same period. Our findings suggest that when firms must expand faster than infrastructure systems can adapt, the environmental characteristics of available infrastructure increasingly shape realized outcomes. | |