Why Big Tech Is Becoming an Energy Trader Amid the AI Power Crunch
- Category: AI Automations
- Date 26-11-2025
Tech companies aren’t just racing to build bigger data centers—they’re racing to secure the power needed to keep them running. As AI adoption accelerates, the demand for electricity has surged so dramatically that major tech firms are now stepping directly into the energy-trading world.
Meta confirmed this shift when its head of global energy, Urvi Parekh, told Bloomberg that the company is officially entering energy trading to help stabilize U.S. power supply. By becoming an active participant in the energy market, Meta gains the flexibility to sign long-term power contracts—something power plant developers increasingly expect from large electricity consumers. As Parekh put it, developers want assurance that major buyers are willing to “put skin in the game.”
Meta isn’t alone. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are all aggressively pursuing new energy sources, including advanced nuclear projects and large-scale clean-energy investments. Google is even exploring long-shot concepts such as space-based data centers that could run directly on solar energy harvested outside Earth’s atmosphere.
According to Dan Stein, CEO of Giving Green, the trend is unavoidable: the tech industry simply needs more power than the grid can currently provide. Analysts at Morgan Stanley project a shortfall of up to 13 gigawatts for data centers by 2028, a gap large enough to threaten the growth of AI itself.
But securing massive amounts of electricity doesn’t come without risk. If the energy demands of hyperscale data centers drive up local pollution, increase carbon emissions, or raise retail electricity prices, tech companies could jeopardize their social license to operate. Communities and regulators are watching closely.
Becoming energy traders gives companies a new level of control and creativity in how they source and manage power. It allows them to buy electricity in flexible ways, support the development of new generation capacity, and even sell excess power back to the market. Instead of merely consuming energy, they’re now helping to produce and stabilize it.
As Stein notes, “hyperscalers are needing to get creative with energy contracting.” For tech giants facing the realities of an AI-powered future, taking on the role of energy trader isn’t just a strategy, it’s the next logical step.