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In light of growing global concerns about energy consumption and sustainability, the latest research by BestBrokers reveals the staggering electricity usage of the world’s largest tech companies and how long it would take them to pay off their massive power bills.
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With the rapid rise of AI and the increasing energy demands of data centres, energy consumption in the tech industry is skyrocketing. It often surpasses that of entire nations. But for companies generating billions of dollars in revenue every year, how much do these costs really matter?
To find out, the team at BestBrokers looked at how much electricity the ten largest tech companies by market cap that publicly disclose such data used in their latest fiscal year. BestBrokers calculated their energy costs using national business rates and estimated how long it would take each firm to cover these expenses based on their average daily revenue.
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Our findings reveal that three of the tech giants we analysed can pay off their entire annual electricity costs with less than a day’s revenue, with Apple leading the pack. The iPhone maker consumed a staggering 3,487 gigawatt-hours of electricity during its 2023 fiscal year. Based on the U.S. business electricity rate of $0.131 per kilowatt-hour as of June 2024, Apple’s energy bill came to $456.8 million.
However, with an average daily revenue of $1.1 billion, the company could settle this bill in just 10 hours and 26 minutes of operation.
Here are some key insights from our report:
- Apple consumed 3,487 gigawatt-hours of electricity in fiscal year 2023, costing the company $456.8 million. But with jaw-dropping profits of over $1 billion per day on average, the iPhone maker can pay off this huge bill in just 10 hours and 26 minutes of operation, making it the fastest among all tech companies analysed.
- Nvidia’s fiscal year 2024 electricity bill amounted to $80.3 million after consuming 613 gigawatt-hours of electricity. Still, the company can settle that in roughly 11 hours thanks to a daily average income of $166.9 million. Broadcom, too, can clear its $54.6 million energy cost in around 13 hours.
- Google faces the largest electricity bill among the tech giants we looked at, at $3.3 billion for 25,307 gigawatt-hours consumed in 2023. Yet, with impressive daily profits of $842.2 million on average, the search giant can settle this in just under 4 days.
- Microsoft, which consumed 23,568 gigawatt-hours of electricity in its last fiscal year, will need approximately 4 days and 14 hours to clear its $3.1 billion energy bill, based on its average daily income of $671.6 million. Facebook, on the other hand, used 15,325 gigawatt-hours, resulting in a $2 billion energy bill. With a daily revenue of $369.6 million, it would take the company around 5 days and 10 hours to cover those costs.
- Samsung tops the list in terms of energy consumption. The company used nearly 30,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity in its last fiscal year, leading to a hefty energy bill of $3 billion. Despite these steep costs, Samsung’s average daily income of $535.7 million allows the company to pay off this expense in just over 5 days and a half.
- Meanwhile, TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, consumed 24,775 gigawatt-hours in 2023, translating into an electricity bill of $3.2 billion. With a revenue of $185.1 million on average per day, TSMC would need over 17 days to settle its energy costs, making it the slowest among the companies in our report.
To put the massive energy consumption of the world’s largest tech companies into perspective, we also compared their annual electricity use to that of entire nations. These power-hungry tech giants consume as much, or even more, power in a single year than countries with populations in the millions.
For more details on each company’s annual electricity consumption and the methodology used, please check out the full report.
