Meta funds skilled trades jobs programme for AI data-centre buildout

Published Tue, Jun 9, 2026 · 04:55 PM

[NEW YORK] Meta is investing US$115 million to stand up a new training programme for data-centre technician jobs, as the social media giant races to build the infrastructure needed to power its artificial intelligence ambitions.

The cost-free programme, America’s Workforce Academy, will end in guaranteed job offers to graduates, the company said.

A Meta spokesperson said it will provide generalist training for data-centre technicians.

Jobs on offer will be full-time roles, with general contractors working on Meta’s data-centre buildout, she added.

The spokesperson declined to specify the number of positions that would be available and the names of the companies they would be with.

She also did not specify whether union jobs would be part of the opportunities offered.

The Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction trade group, said it expects to train thousands of people over the course of the programme.

Dina Powell McCormick, Meta president and vice-chairman, said: “The AI revolution is bringing change, but also historic opportunities.”

The investment is a tiny slice of the US$600 billion total Meta has pledged to invest in US infrastructure and jobs over the next three years, as it builds out massive data centres to power CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive bets on AI agent technologies.

He has said his goal is to build AI assistants that can take action autonomously on their users’ behalf to create apps, book appointments and complete transactions.

Zuckerberg embarked on a big-ticket hiring spree in 2025 to enable that vision for “personal superintelligence”, offering US$100 million signing bonuses to AI researchers from rival companies such as OpenAI.

More recently, he has been carrying out an AI-related restructuring inside Meta, laying off 10 per cent of the workforce, or about 8,000 employees, and reassigning nearly as many others to new units aimed at improving the company’s AI models and tools.

In general, data centres tend to produce short-term construction booms and a small number of permanent jobs.

For instance, a data centre in Texas where Meta broke ground last year is one of the largest planned in the US.

It is projected to have more than 1,800 workers onsite at peak construction and create about 100 jobs once operational.

Another Meta data centre in Oklahoma is expected ​to create more than 1,000 construction jobs at its peak ​and about 100 operational jobs upon completion. REUTERS