Don’t Get A Degree, Learn A Trade Instead: CEO Of World’s Biggest Company Nvidia Advises Young People

The CEO of the world’s most valuable company has delivered a stunning piece of career advice for young people. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says the path to success in the new AI world might not be a university degree, but a trade qualification. He claims electricians and plumbers will be needed by the hundreds of thousands to build the infrastructure of the future.

This surprising guidance comes as the global boom in data centre construction creates a massive demand for skilled manual labour. Huang suggests that for Generation Z, this represents a golden opportunity with high earning potential, all without the burden of student debt.

The Billionaire Behind Nvidia
Jensen Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and still leads it today. His personal fortune now sits at around US$150 billion (R2.7 trillion), making him one of the richest men on the planet.

Nvidia itself is valued at about US$4 trillion (R72 trillion). The company employs some 36,000 people worldwide, and its stock market surge has created staggering wealth. Reports suggest that around 80% of Nvidia’s staff are now millionaires, with nearly half said to be worth over US$25 million (R450 million) each.

The Staggering Demand For Data Centre Builders
In a recent interview, the Nvidia chief outlined the immense scale of the upcoming demand for tradespeople. He directly linked this need to the explosive growth of artificial intelligence and the facilities required to power it.

According to the Channel 4 News interview, Huang stated:

“If you’re an electrician, you’re a plumber, a carpenter—we’re going to need hundreds of thousands of them to build all of these factories. The skilled craft segment of every economy is going to see a boom. You’ve going to have to be doubling and doubling and doubling every single year.”

The financial backing for this boom is already happening. Nvidia itself announced a US$100 million (R1.8 billion) investment into OpenAI last week to fund data centres built on its processors. Industry-wide spending is projected to be astronomical, with global capital investment in data centres expected to reach US$7 trillion (R126 trillion) by 2030, according to a McKinsey report cited by Fortune.

CEOs Warn Of Critical Worker Shortage
Jensen Huang is not a lone voice in the wilderness. Other major corporate leaders are echoing his concerns about a critical shortage of skilled workers. This consensus suggests a significant shift in the future job market away from traditional white-collar roles.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink raised this issue earlier in the year. At an energy conference in March, Fink said he had taken his worries directly to the White House. Fortune reports that Fink argued that deportations of immigrant labour and a lack of interest among young Americans are creating a crisis for data centre construction.

“I’ve even told members of the Trump team that we’re going to run out of electricians that we need to build out AI data centers. We just don’t have enough.”

Just this week, Ford CEO Jim Farley reinforced these concerns. In an interview with Axios, Farley pointed to a major gap between the ambition to reshore manufacturing and the reality of the available workforce.

“I think the intent is there, but there’s nothing to backfill the ambition. How can we reshore all this stuff if we don’t have people to work there?”

According to a June LinkedIn post from Farley cited by Fortune, the United States is already short 600,000 factory workers and 500,000 construction workers.

Six-Figure Salaries Without A Degree
The appeal of these trade jobs is being supercharged by their high earning potential. The construction of a single large data centre is a massive undertaking that offers significant financial rewards for workers.

Fortune reports that building one 250,000-square-foot data centre can employ up to 1,500 construction workers. Many of these workers can earn more than US$100,000 (R1.8 million), plus overtime, without ever needing a college degree.

While the U.S. Department of Education is prioritising the expansion of trade programs, some young people are already seizing the initiative. The article highlights the story of Jacob Palmer, a 23-year-old from North Carolina. He skipped university, trained as an electrician, and launched his own business by age 21. Last year he grossed nearly US$90,000 (R1.6 million) and has already hit six figures this year. He simply stated:

“I don’t owe anybody anything.”

This is a position many of his degree-holding peers likely envy, highlighting the practical and financial benefits of the path recommended by the world’s leading tech CEO.