Construction firms are scrambling to fill jobs building data centers, power systems and the facilities that keep artificial intelligence running, as the race to build the infrastructure behind AI creates a new boom for America’s blue-collar workforce. The money is flowing upward. The labor is getting pulled into the machine.
The rapid buildout is putting a new premium on skilled trades, with data centers requiring armies of workers to prepare sites, pour concrete, install electrical systems and handle the infrastructure needed to bring them online. That means heavy-equipment operators, logistics workers, concrete workers, electricians, plumbers and other skilled trades are being pressed into service for projects that serve the needs of Big Tech, not the people doing the work.
Who Gets the Work, Who Gets the Bill
Cole Renken, general manager of Merlo America, the U.S. division of Italian construction equipment manufacturer Merlo Group, said there has been a lack of focus for many years on the benefits of a career in the trades. "It's a very stable income, very stable lifestyle that you can provide for," he said. That pitch lands hard in a country where construction spending is projected to climb from $2.22 trillion in 2026 to $2.85 trillion by 2031, according to a new report from Merlo America developed with predictive sales intelligence firm BiltData.ai.
Industrial construction, which includes factories and data centers, is projected to reach $684 billion by 2031, representing 24% of total U.S. construction spending. Much of that growth is being driven by the infrastructure needed to power AI, cloud computing and 5G. The bosses call it growth. The crews call it work.
Renken said large projects require heavy-equipment operators to prepare sites and logistics workers to coordinate materials, followed by concrete workers, electricians, plumbers and other skilled trades as construction progresses. Electrical workers, he said, could face particularly high demand. The system’s newest miracle still depends on old labor, old sweat and old physical infrastructure.
Constant Construction, Constant Extraction
Brittany Kaiser, CEO of AI infrastructure company Alpha Compute, said data centers require workers not only to build the facilities and energy infrastructure, but also to install equipment, monitor operations, perform maintenance and support future expansion. "These are projects that can provide hundreds or thousands of jobs over many, many years," Kaiser said. "It's not a quick construction project." She described data centers as "a constant construction project," requiring workers across construction, electricity, energy development, monitoring and maintenance as facilities grow and expand.
Kaiser said that ongoing demand could create opportunities for surrounding communities, particularly for workers who can be trained for specialized positions. "It's jobs that can also be taught and trained," she said. "So it's very possible to engage with the community on education and training initiatives to allow people to get access to these higher paying jobs that they didn't have a skill set for before."
That language sounds friendly enough. Education initiatives. Community engagement. Access. But the structure stays the same: corporations decide what gets built, where it gets built and who gets hired to keep it running.
As projects multiply, finding enough skilled workers could become a challenge. Renken said shortages in the trades have persisted throughout much of his career and could intensify as more projects come online. He said the boom is also a reminder that even the most advanced technology depends on physical infrastructure and the skilled workers needed to build and maintain it. "To me, it has been kind of an overshadowed market that hasn't gotten the attention that it needs," he said.
The Balance Sheets Start to Crack
The same day, CNBC reported that the artificial intelligence spending boom is testing one of Big Tech's greatest strengths: pristine balance sheets. Meta Platforms, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft entered the AI race as some of the world's healthiest companies and most desirable borrowers, armed with enormous cash on hand and little debt relative to their equity. After years of accelerating investment in data centers and AI servers, those financial profiles are beginning to show strain.
CNBC said capital spending has climbed above 100% of operating cash flow at some of these hyperscalers, pushing them to outside financing, including traditional debt sales and more creative "off-balance sheet" arrangements. Amazon and Alphabet have tapped debt markets around the globe; Alphabet also issued equity. Meta has issued bonds and is leaning into strategic ventures with alternative asset managers to help fund data center projects. The report quoted Naveen Sarma, analyst at S&P Global, saying, "As leverage gets worse, their credit quality comes down." He added that while deteriorating credit quality doesn't necessarily mean a company will default, "it becomes more expensive for them to finance debt."
CNBC said Meta's second-quarter free cash flow plunged 91% from a year earlier as capex jumped 88% to $31.1 billion. Alphabet posted its first-ever quarter of cash outflows since going public in 2004 after capex doubled to $44.9 billion. Amazon posted a cash outflow of $8.8 billion after capex jumped 68% year over year to $54.21 billion. Microsoft saw free cash flow decline 23% to $19.6 billion, despite capex more than doubling. The report said Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are estimated to spend roughly $960 billion on capex in calendar 2027, while their combined operating cash flow is projected to be around $905 billion. Only Microsoft is projected to have positive free cash flow in 2027.
Wall Street Builds the Cage
CNBC also said the companies have become major borrowers in the bond market this year. Alphabet issued debt in multiple currencies, including a $3.6 billion Australian bond sale last week, a $25 billion senior note sale earlier in August and a rare 100-year sterling bond in February that matures in 2126. Alphabet's long-term debt stood at roughly $115 billion at the end of June, more than tripling from a year earlier.
Amazon tapped the bond market in July for roughly $25 billion after raising about $64 billion earlier in the year across the U.S., Europe and Canada, and ended June with $222 billion in long-term debt, up 67% from a year earlier. Meta sold investment-grade bonds worth $25 billion in April, on top of a roughly $30 billion debt offering in the fall of 2025, and had long-term debt of roughly $110 billion at the end of June, up 131% year over year. Microsoft has not sold any bonds since 2024, according to FactSet data, but its long-term debt was up 9% year over year at the end of June, to $110 billion.
Meta's new venture with BlackRock to develop a roughly $14 billion data center campus in El Paso, Texas, allows the company to secure additional computing capacity without funding the entire project itself. BlackRock will own 80% of the venture and Meta 20%, with Meta leasing the campus. Meta also has a joint venture with Blue Owl Capital for its sprawling "Hyperion" data center in Louisiana. CNBC said Nvidia partnered with Wall Street heavyweights to establish financing platforms to mobilize $500 billion in third-party capital for the AI infrastructure buildout, and Broadcom partnered with asset managers in Apollo and Blackstone on a funding platform for AI infrastructure.
The report said Barclays analysts wrote in an Aug. 13 note that "The hyperscaler industry has natural limits around debt levels and power agreements, and we seem to be approaching those limits in '27."
S&P Global's Sarma said Oracle is the most vulnerable of the five major hyperscalers because the company has significant leverage while burning through cash. Oracle has had negative free cash flow in five straight quarters, including for the three months ended in May. On July 9, S&P Global cut Oracle's credit rating and sees the company's credit as low investment grade. S&P now has a BBB- rating on Oracle; AAA represents the highest quality and lowest risk. Of the four Club-owned hyperscalers, S&P Global has the lowest rating on Meta, at AA-. Sarma said Meta's future lease commitments ballooned from roughly $180 billion last quarter to about $280 billion at the end of June, and that Meta's leases for future data centers are "going to be a liability in a couple of years." He said, "That's a concern."
Lloyd Walmsley, an internet equity analyst at Mizuho Securities, said he feels good about Meta's balance sheet. He said the Facebook and Instagram parent has several ways to generate returns on the enormous amount of computing capacity it's building, including renting out some of the capacity to other companies. "We are not concerned right now," Walmsley said. "They have a lot of optionality where they can convert it into operating cash generation effectively," he said. Walmsley said the fundamental problem for investors is "not how they're financing, as much as what is the return on investment on the spend." He said it would make investors more comfortable if Meta struck deals to rent out capacity to other AI labs, such as Anthropic or OpenAI. "It's critical that they show investors they can generate a return on some of this capacity," he said.
S&P Global analysts said the ultimate question is whether AI investments generate sufficient returns, and what happens to the businesses before they arrive. David Tsui, another S&P Global analyst, said, "We are tracking the qualitative part of the business and quantitative credit metrics, which is clearly deteriorating." He said, "Maybe they have a cushion today, but if you look out two to three years, maybe they've breached their downgrade threshold. That's when we start signaling there's a threat of a downgrade." Tsui said what "gets us nervous" is the pace of capex outpacing revenue growth and profitability, and the pressure it puts on free cash flow. Sarma said Wall Street broadly expects an inflection in returns on AI investments around 2028, leading to an uplift in revenue, earnings and cash flow. But if that inflection doesn't happen and the companies keep spending at the current pace, he said, "then we're going to have much more serious credit issues."