Meta is launching a trades academy to bolster AI infrastructure build-outs

Meta is putting $115 million behind a new program designed to train workers to help build data centres and other AI infrastructure.

America’s Workforce Academy (AWA) will cost nothing to those attending, who will be guaranteed a job upon completion, and initially launch this year as a pilot in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Texas.

Meta didn't reveal how many positions would be available, which companies would employ these workers, whether they would be short-term construction roles that are usually required for building data centres, and – as Reuters noted – if the jobs would be unionized.

The AWA will help ensure there's enough trained workers to complete the skilled tasks needed to build AI infrastructure, but also acknowledges looming changes to the workplace, with big tech providers claiming the technology will have a serious impact on white-collar jobs.

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Meta recently slashed 10% of its workforce, about 8,000 jobs as part of a pivot towards AI. The AWA investment is a small slice of its overall AI investment, with the company expected to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion on AI infrastructure and data centers this year alone.

The $115m AWA investment is an initial pledge to cover the first year pilot in those four states, Meta noted.

"The AI revolution is bringing change but also historic opportunities," said Dina Powell McCormick, Meta president and vice chairman.

“Skilled workers electrified rural America one pole at a time. They manned the factories that built the arsenal that won World War II. Now a new generation will pour the foundations and lay the fiber that secures American strength in this new age."

Will tradespeople be the real winners with AI?

The move by Meta comes just weeks after claims that tradespeople could rank among the real ‘winners’ of the generative AI race.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted that the economic benefits of AI won’t be limited to the tech sector, but will also extend to trade workers,

"Electricians, plumbers, iron workers, technicians, builders, this is your time," he told students during a commencement speech at Carnegie. "AI is not just creating a new computing industry, it is creating a new industrial era."

However, many of these jobs are short term. Reuters noted one Meta project would require 1,800 workers to build, but only 100 to operate once the data center was complete.

Workers needed – for now

Meta said in a statement that the US labor market is short of hundreds of thousands of skilled workers and that this is "an incredible opportunity for these American heroes to power America's future."

Rachel Peterson, Meta’s VP for data centers, said filling construction and trades skills gaps requires the same "long-term thinking" that Meta is bringing to AI itself.

"The AI infrastructure we’re building today requires an incredible workforce to make it a reality," Peterson said. "America needs hundreds of thousands of skilled tradespeople — electricians, mechanics, fiber technicians and more — and this program creates clear, accessible pathways into those careers."

Meta will partner with key industry players as part of the AWA, including National Urban League, the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), and CBRE.

The AWA will make use of the ABC's existing educational ecosystem. A similar previous effort, fiber installation training program Level Up, saw 35,000 applications in its first week.

"The sustained demand for data center construction technicians means the industry needs an all-of-the-above approach to grow the construction talent pool," said Michael Bellaman, ABC president and Chief Executive Officer.

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