In January 2026, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stood on a stage in Davos and told a room full of the world’s richest people that the future belongs to electricians, plumbers and steelworkers who he says will soon have the opportunity to earn six figures.
Speaking beside BlackRock chief Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum, he called the race to build artificial intelligence data centers the “largest infrastructure build-out in human history,” and said the people who cash in will be pulling wire and setting steel, not writing code.
His pitch was aimed at young people staring down a brutal entry-level market. But the numbers underneath it may matter just as much to someone in their 50s who already owns the tools and the skill set.
Huang’s point
Data centers are projected to need $6.7 trillion worldwide by 2030 to keep pace with demand for computing power, according to McKinsey, and every one of those buildings needs power, cooling, steel and pipe before a single chip runs.
The optimism is not new. “The skilled craft segment of every economy is going to see a boom,” Huang said in a 2025 interview, and he carried the same message onto the Davos stage.
The shortage is not theoretical. Fink has told the Trump administration that the country is running out of the electricians it needs to wire these sites.
Huang’s version is blunter. “You don’t need to have a PhD in computer science” to make a great living, he said, and he told graduates at Carnegie Mellon in May that the moment belonged to the trades.
Demand rules
Huang’s real claim is not that the trades already pay well. It is that the buildout is bidding the pay up. When the tech giants racing to build these sites need one energized on a deadline, they outbid everyone else for the electricians who can do it, and the wage follows the demand, not the historical average.
That is why the national median is the wrong number to fixate on. Electricians earn a median of $62,350 per year and plumbers $62,970 annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But a median describes the whole country in an ordinary year. It says little about what a hyperscaler pays to get a site finished on deadline. That is where the premium lives, and it is the premium, not the average, that Huang is pointing at.
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Already skilled
When employers cannot find enough hands, workers gain leverage on wages, overtime, and on which jobs they accept. The BLS projects about 81,000 electrician openings a year this decade, which do not have to be filled by younger workers.
A licensed electrician or fitter who can land a spot on a data center build, or move to a state where they are going up, is positioned to capture the top of that range, not just read about it.
It may also shift the retirement math. Staying in a well-paid trade a few extra years shortens the stretch your savings must cover, and it can lift your Social Security check, since benefits are figured on your 35 highest-earning years. A strong late-career run can replace a lean early one in that formula.
Starting later
This is possible, but the apprenticeship is long, and the work is physical. The BLS description of plumbing alone includes lifting heavy materials, climbing ladders, squeezing into tight spaces, and the cuts, burns and falls that follow.
That does not shut the door. It changes which door. There are plenty of skilled jobs that do not require degrees. If the goal is simply extra income rather than a second career, lighter part-time work in retirement may fit the budget with far less wear and tear on an aging body.
If you are actively seeking a part-time or work-from-home job, FlexJobs lets you browse and apply to verified jobs around the corner and around the world.
A genuine opportunity
Huang is probably right about the direction. The buildout is real, the shortage is real, and the country will pay well for people who can wire and plumb it.
If you are 55 and the premium runs another decade, chasing the data center work could lift your earnings through the exact years that set your Social Security benefit and pad the savings you retire on.
If your focus is on retiring earlier rather than extending your working life and you have over $100,000 in savings, consider getting advice from a pro to weigh up your options. SmartAsset offers a free service that matches you to a vetted, fiduciary advisor in less than five minutes.
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