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Posted on 08/03/2026 10:33:24 AM PDT by lasereye
The job market has been a tough sell for many Gen Z graduates, with tariffs, economic uncertainty, and artificial intelligence reshaping hiring plans across corporate America.
But according to Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang, the next wave of six-figure opportunities won't be found in a Wall Street cubicle or Silicon Valley Slack channel. Instead, high-paying careers will partially come by picking up a wrench—literally.
As tech giants race to build sprawling data centers—totaling $7 trillion in global capital outlays by the end of the decade—Huang believes the world is on the cusp of what he calls the "largest infrastructure build-out in human history," which will create "a lot of jobs."
"It's wonderful that the jobs are related to tradecraft, and we're going to have plumbers and electricians and construction and steelworkers," he said in conversation with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
The hands-on skills needed to construct what he described as chip, computer, and AI factories are already facing shortages—even though many roles pay over $100,000 without requiring a college degree. One McKinsey report estimated that between 2023 and 2030, there will be a need for an additional 130,000 trained electricians—as well as 240,000 construction laborers and 150,000 construction supervisors—in the U.S. alone.
"Everybody should be able to make a great living," Huang said. "You don't need to have a PhD in computer science to do so."
As Huang sees a trades boom, other CEOs warn there's not enough skilled workers This isn't the first time Huang has expressed his optimistic outlook on new career paths emerging alongside AI.
"The skilled craft segment of every economy is going to see a boom," he told Channel 4 News in the U.K. in 2025. "You're going to have to be doubling and doubling and doubling every single year."
That optimism stands in contrast to warnings from leaders like Ford CEO Jim Farley, who has repeatedly cautioned AI is hollowing out traditional white-collar entry points—just as the education system continues to funnel students toward four-year degrees.
"There's more than one way to the American Dream, but our whole education system is focused on four-year [college] education," Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in 2025. "Hiring an entry worker at a tech company has fallen 50% since 2019. Is that really where we want all of our kids to go? Artificial intelligence is gonna replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S."
At the same time, Farley has warned the country lacks the blue-collar workforce needed to support a manufacturing and infrastructure revival.
"I think the intent is there, but there's nothing to backfill the ambition," Farley told Axios in September 2025. "How can we reshore all this stuff if we don't have people to work there?"
In June of the same year, Farley said the U.S. was already short 600,000 factory workers and 500,000 construction workers.
BlackRock's Larry Fink has echoed these concerns, singling out the electrical industry as a looming bottleneck. Electrician jobs are expected to grow 9% over the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"I've even told members of the Trump team that we're going to run out of electricians that we need to build out AI data centers," Fink said to an audience at CERAWeek, an S&P Global energy conference hosted in Houston. "We just don't have enough."
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Nvidia is the largest manufacturer of the chips that are used for AI.
“blue-collar worker shortage will be filled by college grads”
I dunno man, a lot of the college boys I’ve come across don’t even know how to change a flat tire.....much less having the mechanical ability to succeed in the primary trades.
>>I think that the blue-collar worker shortage will be filled by college grads who are unemployed or working as baristas, Uber drivers etc.
That’s optimistic. A realist would see this puts pressure on RINOS to help the Rats re-open the border and flood the country with third worlders that will work for a fraction of the pay.
Those are also the only people who will be able to afford their electricity and water bills. But what do they for a living after the centers are built?
Retarded take. Building a data center is a one time gig.
Bribing people with jobs to set up the infrastructure of eternal slavery.
Bingo.
They'll hit the street with skills that took a lot of time and effort to master, only to find themselves in a glutted job market, driving more workers out due to depressed wages.
Over 100K/year to build the surveillance state infrastructure?!?! Sign me up!
Construction and the trades has long also been a landing spot for men who found the office atmosphere of affirmative action and low brow personality politics lacked tolerance for them.
The trades also gives the bright fellows an easy path to quickly breaking out on their own and building a small little business that suits their lifestyle or that they want to turn into a large fortune making enterprise, the construction business is highly competitive, tough, and a permanent drive to the lowest prices,
but the home service trades can be built on quality of service, quality of work, and the skill at building good customer relations and good marketing where price concerns of your customers almost entirely takes a back seat to the quality of the service you deliver to them.
I’m told that electricians make serious $$$ in the SFO area.
They need it to afford a place to stay. Some of the rental prices I’ve seen are ridiculous.
Family member in trades.
He is planning on a glut in 5 years.
People near data centers can’t afford water now? Where is that?
The states with the highest recent data center construction (VA, NC, TX) have below average electric rates. I live in VA. Two new data centers are going up in my county.
There’s no doubt that a lot of new data centers would start pushing up electricity prices at some point. However, many data centers are planning on building their own onsite electricity generation in the next few years. They will mainly be using natural gas in the near term. Eventually they will be adding nuclear as well.
Because of that, I don’t think we’ll reach the point where electricity is going up like crazy. As long as the enviros let them put the generators in. There are a bunch of enviro groups complaining about carbon emissions from the nat gas.
If entry level tech jobs have fallen by 50% since 2019, why do we have hundreds of thousands of H1Bs moving here?
That unhinged theme pops up on every single data center thread. When exactly is this mass surveillance going to kick in anyways? I assume it hasn't happened yet. Or has it? Is President Trump in control of it?
In service work you cut your own path, the world is full of guys who can put on work boots and turn a wrench but who most high end customers dread having in their house working in their beautiful expensive homes on their expensive infrastructure and fixtures, and then being indifferent to service and lacking knowledge of modern systems and options and lacking the deep and current knowledge to properly advise on and maintain the sophisticated infrastructure of modern rich homes and estates, and the talent to investigate the tough repair problems that baffle the average wrench turner joe.
If he can pull it off, tell him to seek out his own market in repair/service work.
The techie dude does not know what he is talking about-he is letting his alligator mouth overload his hummingbird ass. Anyone who has worked with contractors or subs knows that money can’t be made on only big commercial jobs-they stop at some point when the buildings are finished. You need ongoing repair and maintenance jobs, both commercial and residential-and residential jobs are your main income source.
You don’t need a crew for simple maintenance-one person in the field plus one or two helpers is what is normal for a building complex, whether a power plant in Cali or a condo complex in Florida.
He is just trying to sell these AI energy and water hogging centers to rural communities, where they can suck up all the resources used to produce FOOD for everyone else, pollute the soil and produce 24/7 light and noise pollution that interferes with people and livestock. That is why Texas is saying “hell no” to any more in rural areas, and suing to remove/cancel most of the ones planned. If these centers are sol great, then put them in the cities where there are plenty of unemployed people, no food is grown and there is already constant noise, light and pollution. The tech guys trying so hard to sell this s*** are NOT your friends...
I think the AI bubble has already burst and they’re hiding as best they can
I don't think there's hundreds of thousands.
oops-”meant “so great”...
Just out of idle curiosity, what is your line of work/profession?
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