Along with the developments in digital technology, the size of companies operating in this field is increasing day by day.
According to Companies Market Cap data, the market capitalization of the 10 most valuable technology companies, including companies such as Google, Apple and Microsoft, surpassed China, whose 2023 gross domestic product (GDP) was $17.6 trillion.
Technology company owners continue to top the richest lists with their wealth. US businessman Elon Musk ranks first in the list with a fortune of 227 billion dollars according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index data. Eight of the other business people in the top 10 on the list are engaged in the technology business.
TOTAL ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION MORE THAN NIGERIA
The amount of electricity consumed by technology companies increases in direct proportion to their size.
According to data from Visual Capitalist, Google and Microsoft each consume 24 terawatt-hours of electricity annually. These two companies consume more electricity than countries such as Jordan with a population of 11 million (20 terawatt-hours), Iceland with a population of 400,000 (19 terawatt-hours), Ghana with a population of 34 million (19 terawatt-hours) and North Korea with a population of 26 million (18 terawatt-hours).
The total consumption of the two technology companies is equivalent to 48 terawatt-hours, which means that they consume more electricity than Nigeria (31 terawatt-hours) with a population of 223 million. Other tech companies on the list are Meta, which consumes 12 terawatthours, Apple, 2 terawatthours and Nvidia, 0.5 terawatthours.
According to the data on the site, most of the electricity consumption of big technology companies is caused by their data centers.
According to the 2024 Environmental Report published by Google, the electricity use of data centers increased by 17 percent in 2023. The company's data center accounts for 10 percent of the electricity consumption used by data centers globally.
Microsoft has made a big leap in the last 4 years with the developments in the field of artificial intelligence. The company, which consumed 11 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2020, more than doubled its electricity consumption in 4 years, reaching 24 terawatt-hours.
