Big Tech’s AI arms race is driving an unprecedented surge in data-center construction, sending demand for skilled labor—and wages—soaring.
Despite lingering concerns about an AI bubble, hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft continue pouring money into infrastructure to support AI growth. As a result, construction workers are commanding premium pay to keep pace with what experts describe as a seemingly bottomless appetite for AI capacity, Fortune reports.
Raul Martynek, CEO of DataBank—which builds data centers for major tech firms—told Fortune that tech companies could invest more than $100 billion in U.S. data-center projects in 2026 alone. Bank of America projects that global hyperscale spending will climb 67% in 2025 and another 31% in 2026, totaling $611 billion over just two years.
That investment boom is pushing up construction wages. Traditionally, construction projects run on thin margins and cost-sensitive clients, said Fraser Patterson, CEO of Skillit, an AI-powered hiring platform for construction workers. But some of the nation’s 50 largest contractors have seen their revenue double in a year thanks to data-center demand—giving them room to boost worker pay.
“With the huge demand and the nature of this work fueling the AI arms race, the budgets are not as tight,” Patterson said. “They’re a little more frothy.”
Skillit data shows that workers earn an average of $62,000 per year ($29.80 an hour) on typical construction projects. But on data-center jobs, the same workers average $81,800 annually ($39.33 an hour)—a nearly 32% pay increase. Some are even breaking into six-figure salaries, The Wall Street Journal reports.
And there’s little indication the rush will slow soon. Tech giants currently operate 522 data centers and are building 411 more, according to Synergy Research Group.
Patterson said the elevated pay stems partly from compressed timelines and the need for highly coordinated, specialized labor. Projects that once took years are now being completed in as little as six months.
No one knows how long the data-center boom will last, but it’s already reshaping the labor market. Patterson noted that the trend is drawing more Gen Z workers and recent graduates into the trades.
“AI is creating a lot of job anxiety among knowledge workers,” he said. “Construction work is, by definition, very hard to automate.”