Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Reveals the One Non-Tech Job That Will Lead the AI Race

Employees are growing more concerned that their employment may be in jeopardy due to a surge of cost-cutting driven by artificial intelligence (AI). Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, is also not providing any consolation. He claimed that electricians, plumbers, and carpenters will be the true beneficiaries of the AI era, rather than office workers, in a recent interview with Channel 4 News in the United Kingdom.

One Huang told the publication that “the skilled craft segment of every economy is going to see a boom,” claiming that the construction of AI data centres will necessitate continuous growth, “doubling and doubling and doubling every single year.”

Even if recent evidence from the Yale Budget Lab suggests that AI has not yet substantially disrupted the labour market, his viewpoint is gaining momentum among other executives. However, if Huang is right, the talents that demand higher compensation may change over the course of the next ten years.

Why Corporate and IT Sector are Showing Concerns?

Huang, whose business just committed $100 billion to OpenAI’s data centre buildout, contends that the true opportunity is in developing the physical infrastructure behind AI, rather than software experts and programmers being the obvious beneficiaries. His forecast is in line with worries expressed by other business executives who perceive a disconnect between the manpower needed to complete the industry’s ambitious data centre buildout and the available capacity.

Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, Inc. (BLK), for instance, brought up the matter directly with the White House earlier this year, cautioning that a severe labour shortage may result from the combination of tight immigration laws and waning interest in trades among young Americans. “We’re going to run out of electricians that we need to build out AI data centres,” Fink stated during an energy conference in March. “I’ve even told members of the Trump team that.” “We just don’t have enough.”

Without a college degree, a single 250,000-square-foot data centre can hire up to 1,500 construction workers during buildout, many of whom will make over $100,000 plus overtime. According to a recent McKinsey report, once a data centre is up and running, it supports roughly 50 full-time maintenance jobs, each of which creates an additional 3.5 jobs in the local economy. With data centre capital expenditures expected to reach $7 trillion globally by 2030, the type of labour required by the IT industry may change significantly in the future.

What New Research Released by Yale’s Budget Lab States?

Nearly three years after the debut of ChatGPT in November 2022, a new study released 1 October from Yale’s Budget Lab reveals minimal evidence of severe disruption to the labour market. However, compared to earlier technological upheavals like the emergence of the personal computer and the internet, work changes are occurring a little more quickly.

Despite this, the change has been gradual so far, with the patterns beginning before ChatGPT’s arrival, “undercutting fears that AI automation is currently eroding the demand for cognitive labour across the economy,” according to the paper. The researchers looked at unemployment rates among people in high-risk industries, job shifts in occupations exposed to AI, and overall employment trends. None displayed overt indications of job losses due to AI.

The vocational shifts seem to have started in 2021, long before generative AI became generally accessible, even in industries with the highest exposure to AI, such as professional, financial, and information services. According to research, fresh college graduates’ work mix differs little from that of older grads, suggesting some potential early consequences. However, the Budget Lab warns that this might be a sign of a sluggish labour market that, as usual, is having a greater impact on younger people.