Happy weekend, friends. After five years, Microsoft has officially dumped the 'moonshot' metaphor for its climate goals. They took off in a rocket flying in precisely the wrong direction. Better to delete the original destination than change course, right?

While it hasn't officially dropped its goals, it's clear that those targets have been effectively ignored by the company, seeking mostly to paper over its massive rising energy consumption and associated fossil fuel combustion - both direct (for its data centres) and indirect (in its supply chain). Accounting tricks mute the severity of how seriously bad things have gotten for the corporation.

False narratives around 'AI for climate', the company servicing the fossil fuel industry directly, and a serious lack of disclosure that would allow real scrutiny of their claims all contribute to this shocking illustration of the tech age we are in right now: one driven by generative software anxieties, and a consequent lack of concern about who gets burned up in the wake of Microsoft's big new rocket.

Have a read, here:

https://ketanjoshi.co/2025/05/31/the-life-and-death-of-microsofts-moonshot/