The job market has been a tough sell for many Gen Z graduates, with tariffs, economic uncertainty, and artificial intelligence reshaping hiring plans across corporate America.

But according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the next wave of six-figure opportunities will not necessarily be found in a Wall Street office or a Silicon Valley Slack channel. Instead, some of the highest-paying jobs may come from hands-on work, including plumbing, electrical work, construction, and steelwork.

As tech giants race to build sprawling data centers — with total global capital outlays projected to reach $7 trillion by the end of the decade — Huang says the world is entering what he called the “largest infrastructure build-out in human history,” a wave that will create “a lot of jobs.” The build-out is being amplified by government industrial policy, including the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which is directing tens of billions of dollars toward domestic semiconductor manufacturing and adding to demand for skilled tradespeople.

“It’s wonderful that the jobs are related to tradecraft, and we’re going to have plumbers and electricians and construction and steelworkers,” Huang said in January during a conversation with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The hands-on skills needed to build what Huang described as chip, computer, and AI factories are already in short supply, even though many of the roles pay more than $100,000 and do not require a college degree. A McKinsey report estimated that between 2023 and 2030, the U.S. will need an additional 130,000 trained electricians, 240,000 construction laborers, and 150,000 construction supervisors. The electrician demand is particularly acute because AI data centers consume far more power than conventional cloud facilities — a single large-scale site can require as much electricity as a small city, placing enormous pressure on electrical grid infrastructure and the workers who build it.

“Everybody should be able to make a great living,” Huang said. “You don’t need to have a PhD in computer science to do so.”

Huang sees a trades boom as other CEOs warn of labor shortages

Huang has made similar comments before about career opportunities emerging alongside AI.

“The skilled craft segment of every economy is going to see a boom,” he told Channel 4 News in the U.K. in 2025. “You’re going to have to be doubling and doubling and doubling every single year.”

His comments contrast with warnings from other business leaders, including Ford CEO Jim Farley, who has repeatedly said AI is reducing traditional white-collar entry-level opportunities even as the education system continues to steer students toward four-year degrees.

“There’s more than one way to the American Dream, but our whole education system is focused on four-year [college] education,” Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in 2025. “Hiring an entry worker at a tech company has fallen 50% since 2019. Is that really where we want all of our kids to go? Artificial intelligence is gonna replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.”

Farley has also warned that the U.S. lacks the blue-collar workforce needed to support a manufacturing and infrastructure revival.

“I think the intent is there, but there’s nothing to backfill the ambition,” Farley told Axios in September 2025. “How can we reshore all this stuff if we don’t have people to work there?”

In June 2025, Farley said the U.S. was already short 600,000 factory workers and 500,000 construction workers.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has voiced similar concerns, pointing to the electrical industry as a potential bottleneck. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, electrician jobs are expected to grow 9% over the next decade.

“I’ve even told members of the Trump team that we’re going to run out of electricians that we need to build out AI data centers,” Fink said at CERAWeek, an S&P Global energy conference in Houston. “We just don’t have enough.”

A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on January 21, 2026.