In The Business Times, Professor Johan Sulaeman, Director of the Sustainable and Green Finance Institute at NUS, examines the investor bargain behind SpaceX’s listing and the wider Musk ecosystem, including xAI’s rapid AI buildout. AI data centres require vast electricity, water, land and cooling infrastructure. Yet investors buying into founder-controlled structures may have limited power to influence how these environmental risks are managed. This highlights a core challenge in sustainable finance: the AI economy’s physical footprint must be measured, governed and priced.
