News Summary

• The electronic trash generated by AI over the next quarter-century could fill enough shipping containers to encircle the globe six times, the report projected.
• There is currently no plan in place to deal with that waste – which typically contains toxins such as lead, mercury, cadmium and forever chemicals.
• The report's findings arrive as the construction of AI infrastructure accelerates across the United States and globally.
• A 2025 report by McKinsey & Company estimates that nearly $7 trillion in capital outlays will be needed worldwide in the next five years to build datacenters running millions of computer servers 24 hours a day.