I think a lot of big tech companies are getting into hardware in order to diversify and help build a platform to support future online components. Meta has AR and VR, Google has Nest and Fitbit, Apple obviously makes tons of hardware, Amazon with Alexa and warehouse robotics. All of the above make custom servers which require firmware. Even Netflix has some embedded devs working on supporting streaming devices.

What’s nice is that embedded swe equals regular swe salaries at these companies! I am an embedded dev at a big tech company and interviewed at most of the FAANGS recently.