Big Tech is poaching energy talent to fuel its AI ambitions

Big Tech has been on an energy hiring spree.

Technology companies investing heavily in artificial intelligence are bolstering their workforce with energy experts as they look to overcome the biggest bottleneck in scaling AI: access to power.

Energy-related hiring jumped 34% year-on-year in 2024, according to data compiled by Workforce.ai for CNBC. Last year's hiring almost matched this pace and remained 30% higher than pre-AI levels of 2022, when ChatGPT was released late in the year.

Energy is increasingly important to Big Tech companies whose AI ambitions hinge on securing power for insatiable data centers. Data centers accounted for around 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024 – representing a 12% year-on-year rise over the last five years, per the International Energy Agency. Demand is widely anticipated to increase further in line with the build-out of infrastructure.

Meeting that demand is one of Big Tech's biggest hurdles, leading companies to bring energy knowledge in-house and build their own supply — and, in some cases, gobbling up whole companies along the way.

It marks a step-change from traditional sustainability roles, which boomed in the Inflation Reduction Act era but lost steam amid broader ESG backlash that intensified as U.S. President Donald Trump's second term got underway. Instead, operational roles have been in demand: energy procurement, markets, grid interface and strategy, according to energy recruiters who spoke with CNBC.

Microsoft is a quiet winner of the talent war, with over 570 additions since 2022, including Betsy Beck who joined in January last year as director of energy markets. She previously held an energy markets and policy role at Google. Microsoft also snapped up General Electric's former CFO Carolina Dybeck Happe back in 2024 to be the firm's chief operating officer — perhaps an early indication of the mega-cap's playbook. 

It is second only to Amazon, which has notched 605 energy-related hires, though this data includes its subsidiary AWS.

Google has played catch-up to its Silicon Valley neighbors when it comes to AI – and it appears to be paying off as shares in its parent company, Alphabet, have been on a tear. Its market capitalization surpassed Apple's for the first time since 2019 on last week. 

The technology giant's energy strategy — which has seen the addition of 340 hires since 2022 — has also garnered attention. Eric Schubert, an energy regulatory affairs advisor who previously worked with BP for nearly 14 years, joined Google in January, per his LinkedIn profile. Google brought Duke University researcher Tyler Norris on board in November to head up energy market innovation, and is still growing its energy market and policy team. 

As well as individual talent grabs, Big Tech has snapped up energy-related companies while simultaneously scaling work with contractors. Notably, Alphabet is set to acquire data center company Intersect in a $4.75 billion cash deal that includes the assumption of debt.

Project and construction managers and people with land acquisition roles are increasingly in demand but are being serviced with temporary contracts to oversee the initial build-out of infrastructure for these tech giants, rather than via permanent employees, according to Daniel Smart, group CEO of The Green Recruitment Company.

Such companies are comfortable owning, funding, and running energy projects, "but they've never built one before, it's not really their core business," Smart said. "So they'll outsource the construction of it, and possibly even outsource the running of it and just buy the energy. So there's different models and different ways in which they do it." 

"Phase two" will be to try to improve the energy efficiency of data centers — perhaps leading to more permanent roles — he added, but it's not a current priority as "there's such a scramble for just getting the energy." 

It could spell trouble for utilities and other energy companies now battling Big Tech's deep pockets for acquiring talent. 

Jeff Anderson, business development director of a renewable energy recruitment consultancy Taylor Hopkinsons, said his team is "talking to senior candidates from the energy infrastructure space who are becoming aware of the opportunities in data centres and the higher salaries on offer in tech, and are making enquiries and plans to move across long-term."

"In the short-term, the talent market is going to be tight. The skillsets the tech companies are hiring — energy strategy, PPAs, grid connection — are already in demand across renewables and utilities. The talent is there, but it's a finite pool and that means competition for specialists that have tangible project experience is going to increase," he added. 

For Travis Miller, senior equities energy and utilities analyst at Morningstar, increased energy demand actually offers "big opportunities" for utilities and their workforce as tech companies turn to them for support rather than seeing them as acquisition targets. "That's the most efficient way to do it from a workforce perspective and from an infrastructure perspective," Miller told CNBC.

"It's such a large amount of energy that they can't do it themselves," he added. 

Big Tech has secured power purchase agreements with a range of companies, including those working on nuclear energy. On Friday, Meta announced that it has signed deals with small modular reactor company Oklo — which was taken public via Sam Altman's special purpose acquisition company in 2024 — and Vistra and Terrapower. Oklo and Vistra saw their share prices pop over 17% on the news. 

That said, Meta also filed an application to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission back in November to become an electricity trader. Amazon, Google and Microsoft already have approval to do so, meaning they can sell excess power from their own supply back to the grid.

"There are tech companies that are turning into energy companies," Smart said, though he added that this is only for their own use right now. 

"But, then, they can also then sell any additional energy that they're making to neighbors or to the grid – if they can get connectivity."