Meta warns of the critical need for electricians for AI growth

Meta's president, Dina Powell McCormick, recently stated that the United States will need to develop a new workforce to remain competitive in the global race for artificial intelligence. At the Axios AI Summit in Washington, DC, she emphasized the importance of hiring 500,000 electricians over the next two years to build the necessary infrastructure for AI. "These are the real heroes who are building the very infrastructure that will help us win," she said.

Powell McCormick insisted that while the attention surrounding AI often focuses on chips, models, and engineers, it is crucial to recognize the role of skilled workers. These workers are responsible for constructing the physical infrastructure that supports AI technology. "When we talk about America and the importance of our competitiveness in the AI race, we need a whole new workforce," she added.

This statement comes as Meta and other tech giants are reorganizing their teams while heavily investing in AI. Meta began laying off hundreds of employees this week in divisions such as Reality Labs, recruiting, sales, and global operations, according to a source close to the matter and LinkedIn posts from affected employees. Meanwhile, a leaked internal memo obtained by Business Insider shows that the company is restructuring parts of Reality Labs into small "AI-native" groups of "AI builders," as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's initiative to make Meta more agile and productive through AI.

The layoffs reflect a broader shift within large tech companies, where firms are using AI to accomplish more with fewer staff, particularly in administrative and software roles. However, the demand for a skilled workforce in construction, energy, and data center development continues to grow. "We are talking about America's workforce because if you are competing on behalf of America, these are the real heroes who are building the very infrastructure that will help us win," Powell McCormick reiterated.

Powell McCormick is not the only executive to highlight the need for skilled workers as AI infrastructure is booming. At the World Economic Forum in January, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated that it is a good time to be a worker right now, as the AI boom creates demand for manual labor to build data centers. In his annual letter to shareholders, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink claimed that the AI boom is already generating demand for skilled workers building the infrastructure that supports it.

Speaking on the live tech show TBPN earlier this month, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick stated that the AI boom could make plumbers much more valuable, adding that if the majority of the world were automated, physical labor would become the "big bottleneck" for progress.