Power markets spiked around key data center hubs, governments leaned into build-out plans, and the biggest checks went to AI infra and inference. Use this edition to point sourcing at teams with real budgets and to prep candidates for energy, governance, and reliability questions.

As always you can listen to this edition on www.techtalendrop.com!

The Drop

1) Winter storm drives extreme power prices in data center alley
Real-time electricity prices in Dominion’s Virginia territory jumped past $1,800 per MWh during Winter Storm Fern, with PJM forecasting a winter demand record of 147.2 GW. Data centers were a meaningful driver of the spike. Hiring signal: more open reqs in DC ops, energy procurement, reliability, and sustainability near Ashburn and other hubs.

2) Data center operators plan a coordinated lobbying and PR push
Digital Realty, QTS, NTT and others are mounting a campaign to counter AI energy and water backlash after multiple projects were delayed this month. Expect more transparency asks, community programs, and roles in policy, ESG reporting, and community relations.

3) Canada invites proposals for 100MW-plus AI data centers
Ottawa issued a call for partners to build large AI data centers at 100MW and above. If you source in Canada, watch for new demand in grid interconnects, construction PMs, and large-scale facilities engineering.

4) OpenAI doubles down on enterprise
Leadership shifts and a renewed go-to-market focus aim squarely at business customers. Expect more partner engineer, solutions architect, compliance, and enablement roles around enterprise AI rollouts.

AI Tool of the Week

Gem (pipeline CRM and analytics for recruiting)
Why it is useful now: outreach reply rates and forecasting matter when applicants per role have surged. Case studies show reply rates rising to 41% at Terminal, 200+ hours saved per month at Procore, and 7 days faster time-to-hire at Veho after adopting Gem. Use it to standardize outreach, share pipeline dashboards with hiring managers, and forecast pass-through rates by stage.

Try this 7-day pilot
Import one active role, enable automated follow-ups, and share a live pipeline view. Track reply rate, time-to-shortlist, and hiring manager acceptance of the top 15.

Hiring and Interview Insight

Candidates are arriving more anxious and more selective. LinkedIn reports applicants per role have roughly doubled since 2022 and 65% say job hunting is harder. Meanwhile, 83% of job seekers research reviews before they apply. Make your JD and outreach do real work: list salary bands, interview steps, and how AI is used in the process, then link to reviews and team write-ups.

Funding Watch

Use these as sourcing beacons. All announced in the last 7 days.

• Zipline — drone delivery — $600M. Hiring: autonomy, flight ops, ML perception, fleet reliability.

• Humans& — AI lab — $480M seed. Hiring: foundation model research, alignment, evals.

• Baseten — AI infrastructure — $300M at ~$5B. Hiring: inference infra, serving, SDKs, partner eng.

• OpenEvidence — medical AI — $250M Series D at ~$12B. Hiring: clinical NLP, retrieval, compliance.

• Claroty — cybersecurity — $150M Series F. Hiring: OT security, detection engineering, integrations.

Quick Bytes

• Power, price, perception: after this week’s price spikes, expect more scrutiny on AI energy demand and water. Prep a two-liner in outreach describing how your org sources power and measures impact.

• Lobbying ramps: comms and public policy roles will trend up at DC operators and AI leaders.

• Stargate signaling: OpenAI messaging emphasized investment in transmission, storage, and local generation to keep grid impacts in check. Infra and energy partnerships will be hiring themes.

What to do this week

1. Energy context in JDs
   Add region, power mix, and a link to your sustainability note for infra roles. It measurably improves candidate confidence when reviews and transparency are easy to find.

2. Pilot Gem for one role
   Run automated follow-ups and share a live pipeline report with the hiring manager. Compare reply rate and time-to-shortlist vs your last similar role.

3. Enterprise AI readiness
   If you sell or embed AI, draft a one-page “controls and compliance” explainer for candidates and clients. Tie it to your interview loop with a short scenario on model risk and escalation.

That’s all for this week’s Tech Talent Drop — stay informed, and see you next week!