ABU DHABI: Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director and Group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), said that the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) gives the world's largest oil companies a major incentive to increase their investments in renewable energy.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Dr. Al Jaber stated that size of this opportunity only became very apparent about 18 months ago when ChatGPT took off, adding that the huge growth of AI would prompt oil groups to look again at their renewables businesses.

Big tech companies have pledged to use green energy for their AI data centres to meet their net zero targets, Dr. Al Jaber emphasised. "We need a model that will integrate all forms of energy together. We will need more renewable energy,” he elaborated.

Dr. Al Jaber also stressed the importance of advancing battery storage technology to convert renewable energy from intermittent sources into baseload power. “We need gas as a bridge, and in some locations, we will need nuclear power," Dr. Al Jaber noted.