Asia’s AI boom has a dirty secret: the coal that powers it

Asia sits atop vast amounts of coal, nearly three-fifths of the world’s known reserves by some estimates. Cheaper and more reliable than imported oil and gas, and far less vulnerable to disruptions caused by foreign wars, coal is also dirty, polluting – and the region’s No 1 “stopgap source” to power the AI infrastructure roll-out. “AI demand is materialising faster than clean energy generation can be commissioned,” said Alexander Kheder, a market research analyst at BMI who tracks global AI...