Lowe's announced a new partnership on Tuesday with dozens of companies aiming to address America's shortage of skilled workers by training and developing 1 million tradespeople over the next decade.

Through the Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition, the Lowe's Foundation is partnering with Nvidia, General Motors, AT&T, Bank of America and others to train and certify 1 million skilled tradespeople by 2035. The cross-sector coalition, billed as the nation's largest, includes more than 75 businesses, educators, workforce organizations and industry leaders. The range of partners reflects how the shortage cuts across the economy: technology companies building data centers, automakers, telecoms and banks all depend on the same constrained pool of electricians, plumbers, welders and construction workers.

Janice Dupré, executive vice president of human resources and chair of the Lowe's Foundation, told FOX Business that Lowe's first launched an initiative four years ago that aimed to train 250,000 workers for skilled trades roles, but it became clear that the "problem is so much bigger."

She noted that the U.S. economy is facing a shortage of 2 million workers in the skilled trades, with an estimated economic impact of $1 trillion per year. That gap has persisted even as demand for trades labor has grown, with construction backlogs, housing shortages and infrastructure projects all competing for a limited workforce.

"No one entity can solve this. The Lowe's Foundation is uniquely positioned because of our success and experience that we've had over the nearly four years," Dupré said. "I believe collectively, with all these wonderful partners coming together, we're going to solve this for the country." (Meta taps skilled trades workers to power America's AI infrastructure boom)

Dupré said the flow of new workers into the industry has lagged as younger, working-age adults increasingly opted for college degrees rather than entering skilled trades in recent decades. As a result, "There's no workforce waiting in the wings for us to fill these jobs that we so desperately need in this country."

"The skilled trades are continuing to be depleted because for every five people that retire in the skilled trades, only two people are getting introduced into the profession," Dupré said. "It's just eroded over time where students have been encouraged to go get their college degree, and no one's taking over the family business."

"These are the people that build the homes that we all live in. They restore communities when a disaster has happened, and then they support the infrastructure that our economy and our country so desperately needs right now," she added. (Lowe's CEO warns AI can't climb a ladder as company makes $250M bet on blue-collar future)

Dupré noted that partnerships training skilled tradespeople can offer a pathway to in-demand, higher-paying work that can be completed in less time and with less debt than careers requiring a college degree.

"When you look at a lot of these skilled trades programs, some of them can take 90 days of training and certification. Some of them that are more in-depth could take up to six months. Very low-cost models are what we have seen in our partnerships that we have that we're funding," she explained.

"These are careers you can get into with very low debt. But when you look at master plumbers and electricians, these folks are making six-figures," Dupré added. "These are not low-paying jobs, these are high-demand jobs." (Bill Gates outlines the stakes of the AI era: 'Greatest equalizer… or worst source of injustice')

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has drawn new attention to the skilled trades, as hands-on roles can be less sensitive to automation. Dupré noted that "AI is going to transform work no matter what it touches – skilled trades, corporate jobs, and it's going to have an impact, so we're all going to have to figure out a brand new way of working."

"But what's uniquely beneficial in the skilled trades is that it remains hands-on," she said, noting that plumbers, electricians and construction workers have to physically perform that work.

Dupré added that the AI buildout itself is spurring demand for skilled trades workers amid the need for data centers and other infrastructure to power it. The presence of Nvidia among the coalition's partners underscores that link, as the construction of AI data centers requires large crews of electricians, pipefitters and other trades specialists. AI tools can also serve skilled trades workers by helping them research issues they may encounter in the course of their work.

"We don't think of AI as necessarily replacing, we think AI can actually enhance the skilled trades because it'll make it easier for people to get hands-on experience, but also being able to leverage AI to give them quicker solutions," she said, calling the skilled trades a "people business." For the coalition, the measure of success over the coming decade will be whether training pipelines can scale quickly enough to offset retirements and meet demand from construction, manufacturing and the AI infrastructure buildout.