Meta pledges $115 million to train data center workers

Meta is trying to turn its AI buildout into a labor pipeline, pledging $115 million to train electricians, plumbers and other skilled workers needed to keep its data centers running. The company said the new America’s Workforce Academy will offer free training and guaranteed job offers, a direct appeal to workers without four-year degrees.

Meta announced the academy on June 8 and said it will begin as a 2026 pilot in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana and Texas. Graduates will receive both the National Center for Construction Education and Research credential and an America’s Workforce Certificate. Meta said the labor market needs hundreds of thousands of fiber technicians, welders, plumbers, electricians and other skilled trade workers, and president and vice-chairwoman Dina Powell McCormick cast the effort as part of a broader economic shift, saying the AI revolution brings “both change and historic opportunity.”

The jobs sit inside Meta’s expanding U.S. data center footprint, which the company says now includes 27 sites. Meta said its data center projects have supported more than 30,000 skilled trade jobs during construction and more than 5,000 permanent operational roles since 2010. The company is also leaning on its earlier Level-Up fiber technician program, which drew 35,000 applications in its first seven days. Meta said the April 2026 version was a free four-week pathway for people with no prior experience, and successful graduates could work at Meta construction sites through its contractor network.

Meta said America’s Workforce Academy is being run with Associated Builders and Contractors, CBRE and the National Urban League, along with community partners including the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, STRIVE, Boone County Economic Development Corporation, Richland Parish Chamber of Commerce, Workforce Solutions Borderplex and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. ABC said the partnership would provide construction-ready career pathways for thousands of data center construction technicians, with scholarships, travel, housing and stipends, while ABC president and CEO Michael Bellaman called it an answer to the construction industry’s ongoing workforce shortage.

The scale of the pledge is notable, but so is what Meta did not spell out. The company said the academy’s jobs would be full-time roles with general contractors on its data center buildout, but it did not say how many openings there would be, which firms would take part or whether the positions would be union jobs. The $115 million commitment is also only a small part of Meta’s broader $600 billion U.S. infrastructure and jobs pledge over three years, as the company presses ahead with an AI expansion that has already brought large hiring, restructuring and layoffs.