For many Gen Z graduates, the job market has been challenging, with economic instability and shifting corporate hiring strategies. However, Nvidia’s CEO suggests the next surge of high-paying, six-figure roles will not be in traditional white-collar settings. He indicates that many lucrative careers will instead be found in hands-on trades.
With technology companies competing to construct massive data centers—a buildout projected to reach a certain scale by 2030—Huang states the planet is approaching the “largest infrastructure buildout in human history.” He asserts this will generate a significant number of new positions.
“It’s wonderful that the jobs are related to tradecraft, and we’re going to have plumbers and electricians and construction and steelworkers,” he remarked during a discussion with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The practical expertise required to build what he called chip, computer, and AI factories is already in high demand, despite many of these positions offering salaries exceeding $100,000 and not mandating a university education. One analysis projected that from 2023 to 2030, the U.S. will require an extra 130,000 qualified electricians, plus 240,000 construction laborers and 150,000 construction supervisors.
“Everybody should be able to make a great living,” Huang said. “You don’t need to have a Ph.D. in computer science to do so.”
As Huang sees a trades boom, other CEOs warn there’s not enough skilled workers
Huang has previously shared his positive perspective on new professions developing alongside artificial intelligence.
“The skilled craft segment of every economy is going to see a boom,” he informed Channel 4 News in the U.K. last year. “You’re going to have to be doubling and doubling and doubling every single year.”
This positive view contrasts with cautions from other executives, such as Ford CEO Jim Farley, who has often warned that AI is set to disrupt white-collar jobs, even as educational institutions predominantly steer students toward bachelor’s degrees.
“There’s more than one way to the American Dream, but our whole education system is focused on four-year [college] education,” Farley stated at the Aspen Ideas Festival last year. “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.”
Concurrently, Farley has expressed concern that the nation does not have sufficient blue-collar labor to sustain a resurgence in manufacturing and infrastructure.
“I think the intent is there, but there’s nothing to backfill the ambition,” Farley told Axios in September. “How can we reshore all this stuff if we don’t have people to work there?”
By the summer of last year, Farley reported the U.S. already had a deficit of 600,000 manufacturing employees and 500,000 construction workers.
BlackRock’s Larry Fink has echoed these worries, identifying the electrical sector as a particular concern. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates a 9% growth in electrician jobs over the coming ten years.
“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 commented to attendees at CERAWeek, an S&P Global energy conference in Houston. “We just don’t have enough.”
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