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This paper examines how, under the banner of a green digital transition, big tech firms are moving into the provision of energy infrastructure. We focus specifically on a technical means which allows them to do so: computationally intensive simulations. We interpret this move as a new modality of infrastructural power best understood via theories of capitalist planning, which extends beyond the firm and its logistics networks, into the configuration of matter and energy. After showing that big tech is interested in green energy because of rising computation demands, we review theories of infrastructure power and capitalist planning and provide an introduction to the contemporary technology of simulation. Then we examine some examples of simulation in the production and distribution of energy. We then analyze the mutual socio-economic implications of the unfolding entanglement of energy infrastructure, capitalist planning and the big tech industry.
Steinhoff et al. (Tue,) studied this question.