Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says electricians and plumbers will be needed by the hundreds of thousands in the new working world

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the AI data center boom will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for electricians, plumbers, and carpenters, urging young people to consider trade school. Huang's comments align with a broader push for skilled trades as data center construction surges, with global capital spending projected to hit $7 trillion by 2030.

Gen Z keeps being told their chances of landing a job are slim https://fortune.com/2025/09/21/gen-z-job-crisis-unemployment-rate-recent-college-graduates-ai-entry-level-jobs/ as AI threatens entry-level jobs. But in reality, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang https://fortune.com/2025/09/29/jensen-huang-not-afraid-of-ai-bubble-sam-altman-mark-zuckerberg/ says, there are thousands of jobs for young people, thanks to an accelerating boom in data centers. They just have to be willing to go to trade school https://fortune.com/2025/09/14/trump-ivy-league-deals-trade-schools-brown-harvard-columbia/ . “If you’re an electrician, you’re a plumber, a carpenter—we’re going to need hundreds of thousands of them to build all of these factories,” Huang told Channel 4 News https://www.tiktok.com/@c4news/video/7551389307303382294 in the U.K. in late 2025. “The skilled craft segment of every economy is going to see a boom. You’ve going to have to be doubling and doubling and doubling every single year.” And Huang is not just talking about the need—he’s backing it up with cash. Trade jobs are hot right now: Construction workers can earn more than $100K without a college degree The chipmaker announced last year https://fortune.com/2025/09/28/nvidia-openai-circular-financing-ai-bubble/ that it was investing $100 billion into OpenAI https://fortune.com/2025/09/05/ai-makes-it-harder-to-land-a-job-automation-openai-building-jobs-platform-to-help-you-get-one/ to help fund the development of data centers based on Nvidia’s AI processors. Industrywide, global capital spending on data centers is projected to hit $7 trillion by 2030, according to McKinsey https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/the-data-center-balance-how-us-states-can-navigate-the-opportunities-and-challenges . A single 250,000-square-foot data center can employ up to 1,500 construction workers during its build-out—many earning more than $100,000, plus overtime—all without requiring a college degree. Once complete, about 50 full-time workers maintain the facility. But each of those jobs spurs another 3.5 in the surrounding economy. Huang’s call for more electricians and plumbers aligns with his broader view that the next wave of opportunity lies in the physical side of technology rather than the software. When asked https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/18/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-study-field-computer-science-software-gpu-alexnet-generative-physical-ai-university.html :~:text=If%20Nvidia%20CEO%20Jensen%20Huang,focus%20on%20the%20physical%20sciences. what he would study if he were 20 again, Huang admitted he’d lean toward disciplines rooted in the physical sciences. “For the young, 20-year-old Jensen, that’s graduated now, he probably would have chosen…more of the physical sciences than the software sciences,” he said. CEOs agree: It’s out with the white-collar jobs, in with the blue-collar Huang isn’t the only CEO sounding the alarm about a looming shortage of skilled trades. Earlier in 2025, BlackRock https://fortune.com/company/blackrock/ CEO Larry Fink https://fortune.com/2025/03/11/skilled-trade-shortage-blackrock-ceo-larry-fink-gen-z-trump/ said he raised concerns with the White House—arguing that deportations of immigrant labor, combined with a lack of interest among young Americans, are creating a perfect storm for data center construction. “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 at an energy conference in March 2025. “We just don’t have enough.” Ford CEO Jim Farley later echoed https://fortune.com/2025/09/29/ford-ceo-jim-farley-blue-collar-worker-essential-economy-crisis-ai-data-centers/ those concerns, pointing to the gap between Washington’s reshoring ambitions and the workforce to make it a reality. “I think the intent is there, but there’s nothing to backfill the ambition,” Farley told Axios. “How can we reshore all this stuff if we don’t have people to work there?” The U.S. is already short 600,000 factory workers and 500,000 construction workers, according to a 2025 LinkedIn post https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/essential-economy-reinvesting-workers-who-keep-america-jim-farley-auyae/?trackingId=ou%2FckvPzQQSJma0D3g5BJQ%3D%3D from Farley. And while the U.S. Department of Education has made the expansion of skilled trades programs https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/preparing-americans-for-high-paying-skilled-trade-jobs-of-the-future/ a priority, some Gen Zers are already catching on https://fortune.com/2025/07/02/gen-z-ditching-college-secure-trade-jobs-blue-collar-electricians-and-plumbers-worst-unemployment-rate-than-office-jobs/ . Take Jacob Palmer https://fortune.com/2025/09/14/meet-23-year-old-electrician-gen-z-skipped-college-his-own-boss-6-figures/ , a Gen Zer from North Carolina. After graduating from high school, he decided college was not the right fit. Instead, he joined an apprenticeship program at a contracting firm and trained as an electrician. By 21, he launched his own business—and in 2024, grossed nearly $90,000. In 2025, he hit six figures. Unlike many of his peers facing student debt and uncertain job prospects, he said simply: “I don’t owe anybody anything.” A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on September 30, 2025. More on the future of work: - A 5-week course and a guaranteed job: to solve the skilled-trades shortage stalling its AI build-out Meta commits $115 million - Will the future of work for Gen Z include space? work and travel could be just a decade away Tech leaders predict space https://fortune.com/article/billionaires-sam-altman-jeff-bezos-elon-musk-predict-space-jobs-in-the-future-gen-z-gen-alpha-career-opportunities/ to train plumbers, carpenters, and electricians as its CEO says skilled trades are ‘critical to the future’ Lowe’s is investing $250 million https://fortune.com/2026/04/07/lowes-major-investment-skilled-trades-training-electricans-plumbers-carpenters-ceo-marvin-ellison-critical-to-the-future-fortune-exclusive/ The Fortune 500 Innovation Forum will convene Fortune 500 executives, U.S. policy officials, top founders, and thought leaders to help define what’s next for the American economy, Nov. 16-17 in Detroit.