Who Will Build the Data Centers? Meta Has a Creative Solution

High demand for data centers has led to a shortage of skilled workers to build them. Meta has therefore decided to step in, and the company is launching a new five-week course to train Americans to build data centers, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The training program was launched in partnership with commercial real estate investment firm CBRE and the Building and Construction Trades Council. The course will be offered free of charge, and the company is committing to finding graduates jobs at a Meta data center construction site. Meta has already allocated $115 million to the program this year, and it is expected to open in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana and Texas.

Meta’s largest data center project is called Hyperion and is located in Richland Parish, Louisiana. The project is planned to be so large that, according to the company, it will "cover a significant portion of Manhattan."

With this move, Meta joins a growing list of companies trying to find ways to encourage people to enter the field, amid a shortage of skilled workers such as electricians and cooling and insulation systems technicians, who are needed to build the infrastructure for facilities that consume a great deal of energy and require precise heating and cooling systems. According to estimates by the Building and Construction Trades Council, the construction industry needs 349,000 new workers this year alone to meet demand.

The massive construction boom in the sector has helped create thousands of temporary jobs in construction, but it is also raising concerns about harm to communities after construction is completed, since once data centers become operational they require far fewer workers.

Meta already launched a similar training program in April, when it opened a course to train fiber technicians. According to the company, it received 35,000 applications for the course within seven days.

These steps to recruit skilled workers for data center construction come as earlier this month Meta began a round of layoffs affecting about 10% of its total workforce, amid its extensive spending on AI.