{"id":430316,"date":"2026-01-26T06:13:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430316\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T06:13:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:13:30","slug":"nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-says-a-lot-of-six-figure-jobs-in-plumbing-and-construction-are-about-to-be-unlocked-because-someone-needs-to-build-all-these-new-ai-centers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430316\/","title":{"rendered":"Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says \u2018a lot\u2019 of six-figure jobs in plumbing and construction are about to be unlocked because someone needs to build all these new AI centers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The job market has been a tough sell for many Gen Z graduates, with tariffs<\/a>, economic uncertainty, and artificial intelligence<\/a> reshaping hiring plans across corporate America. But according to Nvidia\u2019s CEO Jensen Huang<\/a>, the next wave of six-figure opportunities won\u2019t be found in a Wall Street cubicle or Silicon Valley Slack channel. Instead, high-paying careers will partially come by picking up a wrench\u2014literally.<\/p>\n

As tech giants race to build sprawling data centers\u2014totaling $7 trillion in global capital outlays<\/a> by the end of the decade\u2014Huang believes the world is on the cusp of what he calls the \u201clargest infrastructure buildout in human history,\u201d which will create \u201ca lot of jobs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful that the jobs are related to tradecraft, and we\u2019re going to have plumbers and electricians and construction and steelworkers,\u201d he said in conversation<\/a> with BlackRock<\/a> CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.<\/p>\n

The hands-on skills needed to construct what he described as chip, computer, and AI factories are already facing shortages\u2014even though many roles pay over $100,000 without requiring a college degree. One McKinsey<\/a> report<\/a> estimated that between 2023 and 2030, there will be a need for an additional 130,000 trained electricians\u2014as well as 240,000 construction laborers and 150,000 construction supervisors\u2014in the U.S. alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody should be able to make a great living,\u201d Huang said. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to have a Ph.D. in computer science to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Huang sees a trades boom, other CEOs warn there\u2019s not enough skilled workers<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Huang has expressed his optimistic outlook on new career paths emerging alongside AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe skilled craft segment of every economy is going to see a boom,\u201d he told Channel 4 News in the U.K. last year. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to be doubling and doubling and doubling every single year.\u201d<\/p>\n

That optimism stands in contrast to warnings from leaders like Ford CEO Jim Farley,<\/a> who has repeatedly cautioned that AI is hollowing out traditional white-collar entry points<\/a>\u2014just as the education system continues to funnel students toward four-year degrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more than one way to the American Dream, but our whole education system is focused on four-year [college] education,\u201d Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival last year. \u201cHiring 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Farley has warned that the country lacks the blue-collar workforce needed to support a manufacturing and infrastructure revival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the intent is there, but there\u2019s nothing to backfill the ambition,\u201d Farley told Axios in September. \u201cHow can we reshore all this stuff if we don\u2019t have people to work there?\u201d<\/p>\n

By last summer, Farley said the U.S. was already short 600,000 factory workers and 500,000 construction workers.<\/p>\n

BlackRock\u2019s Larry Fink has echoed<\/a> 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<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve even told members of the Trump team that we\u2019re going to run out of electricians that we need to build out AI data centers,\u201d Fink said to an audience at CERAWeek, an S&P Global energy conference hosted in Houston. \u201cWe just don\u2019t have enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have you given a skilled-trade career a second look thanks to the AI boom? Reach out to preston.fore@fortune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The job market has been a tough sell for many Gen Z graduates, with tariffs, economic uncertainty, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,13652,525,7258,153,11379,134,4321,3858,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-430316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-billionaires","12":"tag-careers","13":"tag-data-centers","14":"tag-gen-z","15":"tag-jensen-huang","16":"tag-jobs","17":"tag-nvidia","18":"tag-school","19":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}