Companies Market Cap reported that the market value of the top 10 technology companies, including Google, Apple, and Microsoft, now exceeds that of China's 2023 GDP of $17.6 trillion.
Owners of tech companies also benefit from this growth—- they continue to top wealth rankings. Elon Musk leads the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $227 billion. In fact, eight of the top ten billionaires on this list are involved in technology.
According to data from Visual Capitalist, Google and Microsoft each consume 24 terawatt-hours of electricity annually. This amount exceeds the electricity use of countries such as Jordan (20 terawatt-hours), Iceland (19 terawatt-hours), Ghana (19 terawatt-hours), and North Korea (18 terawatt-hours).
The combined electricity consumption of these two tech giants totals 48 terawatt-hours, surpassing the electricity consumption of Nigeria, which has a population of 223 million and uses 31 terawatt-hours.
Other technology companies listed consume significantly less power, with Meta using 12 terawatt-hours, Apple 2 terawatt-hours, and Nvidia 0.5 terawatt-hours.
Statistics indicate that data centers are the primary reason behind the high electricity consumption of major tech companies.
According to Google's 2024 Environmental Report, electricity use by data centers increased by 17% in 2023, with Google's data centers accounting for 10% of global data center electricity use.
Microsoft has also seen a significant increase in electricity consumption driven by advancements in artificial intelligence, with its electricity use rising from 11 terawatt-hours in 2020 to 24 terawatt-hours over the past four years.
