Big Tech and Wall Street are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into training electricians, welders, plumbers and other skilled trades.
These skilled laborers are necessary to build out infrastructure supporting the AI boom.
This year alone, Big Tech is expected to invest more than $700 billion on the backbone for artificial intelligence — including data centers, advanced chips, power systems, and fiber networks
Meta, in partnership with Mike Rowe, for instance, recently launched America's Workforce Academy, a $115 million initiative that guarantees graduates jobs.
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“We are in the race of our lifetime. It's like a space race.”
— Mike Rowe, Host, Dirty Jobs
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Mike Rowe is the creator and host of the Emmy Award-winning Discovery Channel television series Dirty Jobs, and the mikeroweWORKS Foundation.
AWA, in turn, is then connecting with the National Urban League, Associated Builders and Contractors, and CBRE.
“We are in the race of our lifetime,” Rowe told the New York Post’s Charlie Gasparino.
“It's like a space race — we're having a Sputnik moment — and that moment is the realization that it all comes down to workforce,” Rowe said.
Meta President and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick said the initiative extends well beyond even Meta, the $1.5 trillion social media and AI giant.
“In World War II, the country came together to physically build the arsenal that defeated tyranny in the world,” McCormick said.
“Today, these American workers are building the infrastructure that's going to allow American AI leadership.”
McCormick added that the AI leadship race with China, Taiwan, South Korea, UK and India “is bigger than Meta.”
The initiative is part of a broader corporate push, as well as a pushback against DEI corporate philanthropies in favor of skilled trades.
They aren’t shelling out all this cash just to make the world a better place.
AT&T is spending $38 billion over five years to train the blue-collar tradesmen needed to build a high-speed fiber network to support AI.
Lowe's has committed $250 million to skilled-trades education, and BlackRock has pledged $100 million through its Future Builders initiative, including $30 million to train more than 12,000 workers in Texas alone.
“The scale of growth underway in Texas demands a workforce ready to build it,” said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
$10 TRILLION WORLDWIDE
Fink has also estimated that $10 trillion will be needed globally to build the infrastructure required for the AI boom, underscoring why companies increasingly see electricians, plumbers, fiber technicians and welders as critical to America's AI future.