Building up a fortune: Why tradespeople will be millionaires in the AI economy

AI infrastructure boom will create six-figure salaries for the electricians, plumbers and carpenters involved in its construction, Nvidia boss says

'The next generation of millionaires will be carpenters, plumbers and electricians.'

In a month where many hopeful third-level students worry about achieving the necessary entry points for their chosen CAO courses, the potential alternatives to college are growing every year. 

While a previous generation might have looked upon a trade as a poor second option to a university degree, the class of 2026 are witnessing a very changed outlook in the trades of plumber and electrician. 

As one of the leading figures in the modern tech universe, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared the ongoing AI infrastructure boom would create six-figure salaries for the electricians, plumbers and carpenters involved in its construction. 

“If you’re an electrician, a plumber or a carpenter, we’re going to need hundreds of thousands of them to build all of these factories. The next generation of millionaires will be carpenters, plumbers and electricians. 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.”

Nvidia recently announced it was investing $100bn in Open AI to help fund the development of data centres based on the company’s AI processors. No longer are six-figure salaries confined to Silicon Valley, Wall Street or London’s Square Mile as the demand for data centres continues, with Huang forecasting the world is currently in the “largest infrastructure build-out in human history,” resulting in a new era of job creation.

 “It’s wonderful that the jobs are related to tradecraft, and we’re going to have plumbers and electricians and construction and steelworkers,” he said at the Davos World Economic Forum in January.

The Nvidia boss suggests a single 250,000sq ft data centre can employ up to 1,500 construction workers during its build-out. Once complete, more than 50 full-time workers will be needed to maintain the facility — and with each of those jobs adding an extra four positions in the surrounding economy. 

A report by McKinsey forecasts global capital spending on data centres will reach over €7trn by 2030, and already the hands-on skills needed to construct chip and AI factories are facing shortages. 

The report estimates over the next four years, there will be a need for an additional 130,000 trained electricians, in addition to 240,000 construction labourers and 150,000 construction supervisors in the US alone. 

“Everybody should be able to make a great living,” Huang said. “You don’t need to have a PhD in computer science to do so.”

His belief in the bright future for tradespeople aligns with his view that the next wave of opportunity lies in the physical side of technology rather than the software. 

Asked what he would himself study were he 20 again, Huang replied: “I’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.”

An apprenticeship combines learning in an education and training institution with work-based learning with an employer, in a company or organisation, explains Niamh Dwyer, a qualified career guidance counsellor with 23 years' experience guiding students and adults through career stages. 

“At least 50% of apprenticeship learning is completed in the workplace, and apprenticeships lead to nationally recognised qualifications. Apprenticeships are open to school-leavers, mature learners, career changers, women and men with diverse backgrounds, talents, skills and abilities. 

"They are ideally suited to individuals who want to learn practical and technical skills and who prefer learning-by-doing.”