The workers Meta and Google desperately need aren't in Silicon Valley

• AI infrastructure growth is exposing a major shortage of skilled blue-collar workers.
• Google, Meta, and other tech giants are investing in programs to prepare Americans for construction jobs.
• Tech firms need electricians, welders, and plumbers to build data centers, despite community backlash.

The AI race has a blue-collar problem. Big Tech wants to fix it.

Days after Meta said it was launching a $250 million program to train Americans for data center construction jobs, Google announced a similar initiative.

The search engine giant on Thursday said it is investing $50 million in skilled-trades training programs across the US in fields critical to building AI and energy infrastructure.

They are tailored for aspiring construction workers, electricians, plumbers, pipe fitters, welders, and other laborers. Some training program partnerships are already underway, a Google spokesperson said.

The moves follow efforts unveiled earlier this year by Oracle and Microsoft to expand existing initiatives aimed at building a pipeline of workers to support the AI boom. Together, they underscore a shortage of tradespeople capable of building the data centers essential to powering AI ambitions — and Big Tech's increasing role in tackling it.

"The constraint on growth isn't hiring more engineers. It's building physical infrastructure," said Tulane University business professor Rob Lalka. "Silicon Valley's white-collar executives won't succeed without blue-collar workers across America."

The construction industry needs an estimated 349,000 new workers this year to meet demand elevated by AI, according to Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade group.

Since tech companies are more accustomed to training workers to use keyboards than bulldozers, they are partnering with organizations such as the International Training Institute for the sheet metal and air conditioning industry to achieve their goals. That has made the likes of Meta and Google highly appealing to proponents of long-standing programs designed to expand the ranks of hard-hat talent.

"We welcome the support of industry leaders like Google to create good, family-sustaining jobs and meet the growing energy needs of our economy," said Kenneth Cooper, international president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, in a statement.

Big Tech's push to build more data centers, however, has also attracted foes.

Some critics point to the vast number of layoffs that tech companies have linked to AI, while residents across the US have been protesting such projects in their communities in recent months. A May Gallup poll found that seven out of 10 Americans oppose living near a data center.

In 2025, permits were issued for 176 new data centers across 34 states — the most new permits in one year since the first was issued in 1976, Business Insider previously reported.