Meta said its workforce academy, run in partnership with commercial real estate firm CBRE and the Associated Builders and Contractors, will train participants in skills needed for data center construction, including electrical and HVAC work. Graduates are guaranteed a job at a Meta data center construction site, the company said.
The program’s first classes will be held in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Texas. Meta’s largest data center, Hyperion, is located in Richland Parish, Louisiana. The company has described the facility as “so large that it would cover a significant part of Manhattan,” the WSJ reported.
The announcement comes amid a widening gap between the supply of skilled trade workers and demand from the construction industry. The Associated Builders and Contractors estimated that the construction industry needs 349,000 net new workers this year alone to keep up with current demand. Data-center-related construction job postings have roughly doubled over the past two years, according to an analysis by labor analytics firm Lightcast.
Meta is not alone in trying to shore up the trades pipeline. The BlackRock Foundation earlier this year announced a $100 million initiative to help train electricians, with a substantial portion targeting Texas, where data center demand has boomed. In April, Meta launched a separate fiber-installation training program and said it received 35,000 applications within the first seven days.
The workforce academy initiative arrives as Meta redirects resources toward its artificial intelligence buildout. The company has said it is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure. In recent months, Meta laid off roughly 8,000 white-collar employees, partly to fund those investments. The company has also begun tracking employees’ mouse clicks and keystrokes to train its AI models on computer use, and has described a future in which AI agents handle much of the work while employees supervise.