Big Tech is poaching energy talent to fuel its AI ambitions
Big Tech is on an energy hiring spree.
Technology companies investing heavily in artificial intelligence are strengthening their workforces with energy experts to overcome the biggest bottleneck in scaling artificial intelligence: access to power.
Energy-related hiring is up 34% annually in 2024, according to data compiled by . Workforce.ai For CNBC. Last year’s hiring nearly matched that pace, remaining 30% higher than pre-AI levels in 2022 when ChatGPT launched late in the year.
Energy is becoming increasingly important for Big Tech companies whose ambitions for AI depend on securing power for their insatiable data centres. data centers taken into account According to the International Energy Agency, around 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024, representing an annual increase of 12% over the past five years. Demand is expected to increase further in parallel with the construction of infrastructure.
Meeting this demand is one of Big Tech’s biggest hurdles; It leads companies to bring energy knowledge in-house and create their own supplies, and in some cases, swallow entire companies along the way.
This marks a step change from traditional sustainability roles, which took off around the time of the Inflation Reduction Act but lost steam as the broader ESG response intensified as US President Donald Trump’s second term began. Instead, operational roles were in demand: energy supply, markets, grid interface and strategy, according to energy recruiters who spoke to CNBC.
Microsoft It has become the silent winner of the war for talent, with over 570 participants since 2022; among them Betsy Beck, who joined as energy markets director in January last year. He previously worked in energy markets and policy. Google. Microsoft also hired Carolina Dybeck Happe, former CFO of General Electric, as the company’s chief operating officer in 2024; This is perhaps an early indication of mega-capital’s playbook.
Although this data includes its subsidiary AWS, it is second only to Amazon, which has hired 605 energy-related people.
Google is catching up with its Silicon Valley neighbors on artificial intelligence, and it appears to be paying off as shares of its parent company Alphabet tumble. Its market capitalization surpassed Apple for the first time since 2019 last week.
The technology giant’s energy strategy, in which 340 people have been hired since 2022, also attracted attention. Eric Schubert, formerly energy regulatory affairs consultant blood pressure He joined Google in January, according to his LinkedIn profile for nearly 14 years. Google hired Duke University researcher Tyler Norris in November to lead energy market innovation and is still growing its energy market and policy team.
Targeting energy and data center know-how
In addition to capturing individual talent, Big Tech has also acquired energy-related companies while also scaling up work with contractors. Specifically, Alphabet is preparing to acquire data center company Intersect in a $4.75 billion cash deal that includes assuming debt.
Project and construction managers and people in land acquisition roles are increasingly in demand, but on temporary contracts rather than permanent employees to oversee the initial build of infrastructure for these tech giants, according to Daniel Smart, group chief executive of The Green Recruitment Company.
“There are technology companies that are turning into energy companies.”
Daniel Smart
Group CEO of The Green Recruitment Company
Smart said such companies are comfortable owning, financing and executing energy projects, but they have never built a project like this before, in fact, it is not their core business. “So they’ll outsource the construction, they’ll probably even outsource the operation, and they’ll just buy the energy. So there’s different models and different ways of doing it.”
He added that “phase two” would be to try to improve the energy efficiency of data centers – perhaps leading to more permanent roles – but added that this was not a current priority because “there is such a struggle just to get the energy”.
That could spell trouble for utilities and other energy companies, which are currently struggling with Big Tech’s deep pockets to land talent.
Jeff Anderson, director of business development at renewable energy recruitment consultancy Taylor Hopkinsons, said his team was “talking to senior candidates from the energy infrastructure space who are recognizing the opportunities in data centers and the higher salaries on offer in technology and are researching and planning for the long-term transition.”
“In the short term, the talent market will be tight. The skill sets that tech companies are hiring for (energy strategy, PPAs, grid connection) are already in demand across renewables and utilities. The talent is there, but it’s a limited pool, which means competition for experts with tangible project experience will increase,” he added.
Rising energy demand actually presents “huge opportunities” for utilities and their workforces, as tech companies look to them for support rather than viewing them as assets, according to Travis Miller, senior equity energy and utilities analyst at Morningstar. acquisition targets. “This is the most effective way to do this from a workforce perspective and an infrastructure perspective,” Miller told CNBC.
“It’s such a huge energy that they can’t do it on their own,” he added.
Big Tech has signed power purchase agreements with a number of companies, including those working on nuclear energy. On Friday, Meta announced it had signed a deal with the small modular reactor company oklo – went public in 2024 through Sam Altman’s special purpose acquisition company – and Vista and Terrapower. Oklo and Vistra saw their share prices rise over 17% on the news.
However, Meta also applied I applied to the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in November to become an electricity trader. Amazon, Google and Microsoft already have approval for this, meaning they can sell excess electricity from their own supply back to the grid.
“There are technology companies that are turning into energy companies,” Smart said, but added that this is currently only for their own use.
“But if they can connect, they can also sell the additional energy they produce to neighbors or the grid.”
