Tech Giants' Energy Hunger Shown In Charts

A new report reveals that just six hyperscalers—Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Oracle, and Apple—now account for a significant share of U.S. load growth, with electricity demand at their AI-intensive data centers surging by more than 30% annually.

Before we dive into the UBS chart pack illustrating the demand growth, here’s more context on what’s driving the spike, as per the analyst Jon Windham:

Electricity Demand Growth Outpacing Revenue Growth

YE 1Q25 U.S. electricity generation grew 3.2% y/y or an incremental 144TWh y/y. We estimate based on recent growth rates that six technology companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Oracle & Apple) accounted for nearly 20% of the growth in U.S. electricity demand. Based on the most recent available information these hyper-scalers are growing electricity consumption at ~30%pa. Electricity demand growth is generally outpacing revenue growth with a consistent trend towards greater energy intensity based on our analysis. Each company matched their total energy consumption with clean energy procurement over the past year.

The scale of demand: If we assume continued 25%pa growth in electricity consumption from just the six technology companies discussed in this report, their annual incremental electricity demand will surpass the pace of annual generation growth of the entire U.S. utility-scale solar industry in early 2028. This is at the core of the need for an all-of-the-above approach to new generation capacity, in our view.

„While the absolute scale of electricity cost to revenue is very low, there is generally growing energy intensity across the group,” Windham noted.

Among the big tech firms, electricity consumption surged 27% year-over-year in 2023, highlighting the surge in data center developments coming online.

Electricity use by the big tech companies surged from about 80 TWh in 2022 to almost 120 TWh in 2023—a jump of about 50%. And consumption is set for much higher rates in 2024 and will keep accelerating through the rest of the decade.

„Transitioning to a period of U.S. solar electricity shortage relative to technology company clean energy goals,” Windham pointed out.

When it comes to data center builds, Amazon is leading the pack.

Pipeline of U.S. grid expansion capacity as of 1Q25.

Where are the data centers?

The surge in electricity demand from America’s big tech firms suggests that the nation is entering a period of tighter grid capacity, which could result in disruptions during peak demand times. More about that here… read.