Ford CEO and Goldman Sachs Warn of Power and Skilled-Labor Constraints as AI Data-Center Boom Accelerates

AI-related capex is expected to surpass $750 billion in 2026. Goldman Sachs estimates approximately 760,000 additional power and grid workers will be needed by 2030. That includes 207,000 specialized transmission and distribution roles that will be needed by 2030.

Specialized transmission and distribution roles require three to four years of training. U.S.

Could go unfilled by 2030. Potential economic losses from unfilled skilled trades jobs could reach $1 trillion annually by 2030. U.S. construction workers is already older than 55 while roughly 39% of electricians are 45 or older.

Skilled trades are losing five workers to retirement for every two new ones entering the field. Nearly 600,000 jobs were advertised across major skilled trades last year while only about 150,000 new workers entered the labor pool through apprenticeships last year.

Farley stated that many of the real problems are in small companies and small businesses that don’t have the funding and that trade school is often offered as an option but it’s extremely expensive.

The combined EBIT of chips, servers, manufacturing, and memory is currently nearly 9x that of power, components, and data center services companies. Ford is launching an energy business and converting several factories in that direction, with workers needing to learn lithium iron phosphate chemistry, Farley stated.

"We are ourselves finding skilled trade shortages as we convert our automotive battery plants to energy storage battery plants in Kentucky and Michigan," he said.

Farley told Fortune that Ford's experience mirrors what is happening across the country with linemen, electricians and plumbers. "It won’t be just for data centers, it’ll be for transmission lines, off-grid energy sources," he added.