00:00So in your view, what is the main climate problem created by the AI boom at this moment?
00:06Semiconductors and data centers use vast quantities of energy. If we don't start creating
00:12more renewables in Taiwan, in the US, in the rest of the world, we're heading towards a climate
00:17catastrophe. So actually according to our report, the projection towards 2030, the global data
00:25center, electricity demand will triple, and especially the AI, you know, the hyperscale data center.
00:32And it's not only data center, but also from the chip manufacturing. And of course,
00:37if more power means more fossil fuel like emissions, because yeah, they are still burning the coal and gas.
00:46You've mostly focused on fabless chip makers like NVIDIA and AMD, rather than the fabs themselves,
00:52the manufacturers like TSMC, like Samsung in South Korea. So why the decision to place the pressure on
00:59the customers of TSMC, like NVIDIA and AMD, rather than on the producers themselves? You know,
01:04might you be letting the Samsungs and TSMCs of the world off the hook for their own emissions?
01:09We want to show it's possible for customers to require their suppliers to do more because
01:16it has been done. It's feasible. Taking example from Apple or Google, who are doing relatively
01:24better in our report, they actually set specific target for their supplier. For example, Apple said
01:33by 2030, all suppliers should use 100% renewable for their manufacturing process. And Google said,
01:42you know, both in the U.S. and Taiwan, AI at this point is propping up the economy. It's
01:48not going to be able to do that. So we actually think that it would be great for companies like
01:51NVIDIA, companies like Apple and Google to put pressure on the chip manufacturers. A company like
01:56TSMC is not selling to any of us. So they're not responsive to public demand for renewable energy.
02:03So they need to be hearing about it from Apple, from NVIDIA, from Google.
02:07You know, both in the U.S. and Taiwan, AI at this point is propping up the economy. It's the main
02:12driver. Now, if it comes to pass that both these climate goals and, you know, the economic development
02:19cannot coexist, which of these two goals should take precedence? And, you know, what are the things
02:25that we should be cutting in order to make one of these two things possible?
02:29In the case of all of the companies we're talking about, these are some of the largest,
02:37richest, and most innovative institutions that have ever been known in world history.
02:44I believe we can do both. I believe that we can invest in renewables and find less energy-intensive
02:51ways to power AI and also continue the economic growth that AI is bringing.
02:58And also I want to respond to the GDP growth because I think most of people in Taiwan don't feel that
03:04growth, actually, because it's highly concentrated in the semiconductor sector.
03:10So we really want to see a more like distributed profit coming from this economic growth.
03:18We want to see this economic growth, but at what cost? At the cost of climate crisis,
03:26at the cost of extreme weather events. So we believe those companies are capable of
03:33of designing the system with solutions in it.
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