By Julie Taylor
Publication Date: 2026-01-23 01:15:00
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is speaking out about the tech industry’s push to construct massive data centers and how it’s good news for the job market.
“This is the largest infrastructure buildout in human history,” Huang said to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “That’s going to create a lot of jobs.”
Huang notes that blue-collar jobs are on the rise.
“It’s wonderful that the jobs are related to trade craft,” he said. “We’re going to have plumbers and electricians and construction and steelworkers and network technicians and people who install and fit out the equipment.
“In the United States, we’re seeing quite a significant boom in this area. The salaries have gone up nearly double. And so we’re talking about six-figure salaries for people who are building chip factories or computer factories or AI factories. And we have a great shortage in that.
“Everybody should be able to make a great living. You don’t need to have a Ph.D. in computer science to do so. And so I’m delighted to see that.”
Raleigh, NC-based construction forecasting firm FMI Corp. predicts that data center construction spending will rise by 23% in 2026.
Andy Halik, president of Chicago-based construction company Skender, told The Wall Street Journal that data centers can cost more than $1 billion to build and employ thousands of workers on the construction site.
Fraser Patterson, founder and CEO of Skillit, an AI-powered hiring…
