US policy changes may allow datacentres to produce more pollution with less oversight, as the Trump administration removes power-plant emissions restrictions and the EPA considers dropping reporting requirements for smaller polluters. This could make it harder for the public to understand the environmental impact of the rapidly expanding datacentre industry, which is being driven largely by artificial-intelligence demand.

Nvidia is developing its DSX platform to improve datacentre efficiency by coordinating computing, cooling and other systems, allowing facilities to adjust operations according to workload and power availability. The company has a commercial incentive to do so: limited electricity supplies increasingly constrain GPU sales, although the efficiency gains may not offset the wider environmental effects of increased datacentre construction and looser emissions controls.