AI companies are paying up to Rs 2.7 crore to Gen Z electricians, but why?

The AI boom has changed the job market with thousands of layoffs across companies like Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon. But there is one job in Silicon Valley that has quietly risen in demand – electricians. As per TV personality Mike Rowe, Gen Z electricians are earning up to Rs 2.7 crore at AI companies.Gen Z electricians can earn as much as Rs 2.7 crore by working at AI data centres. (Representational image made with AI)AI is everywhere, and it has transformed the job market. This year alone, over 1,20,000 tech workers across major companies have lost their jobs. Amazon, Meta, Oracle, TCS, the list is long. But there is one job in Silicon Valley that has quietly become very lucrative – the role of an electrician. According to Mike Rowe, the founder of Dirty Jobs TV show, AI companies are willing to pay crores to Gen Z electricians.At a time when white-collar jobs have taken a hit due to the rise in demand for AI tools, Rowe claims that there is a renewed demand in blue-collar work, including electricians. He said on the Power Players podcast, “The electricians I interviewed and met two months ago in a data centre in Plano, Texas, all under 30 years old, all making $240,000 (roughly Rs 2.3 crore) to $280,000 (roughly Rs 2.7 crore) a year.”The TV host claimed that these “Gen Z electricians” did not have to worry about student loans, and were often contacted by other firms. He explained, "They can work with as much overtime as they want, none with any debt, all three ... were poached three times in the prior 18 months.”Why are AI companies hiring electricians?You see, to run AI models, companies need infrastructure, specifically AI data centres that have thousands of GPUs. And companies are building more and more data centres to meet demand. This in turn has created high demand for electricians, welders and construction managers on-site. As per a report from Fortune, construction workers on data centre projects were earning a premium of about 32 per cent, or $81,800 (roughly Rs 78 lakh) a year over traditional construction in the US.India too, is expected to see a rise in data centres. While Google has announced a $15 billion Google AI hub project in Visakhapatnam, Meta is building its own data centres in partnership with Reliance Jio. At the same time, data centres have reportedly become the most capacity-constrained construction sector globally. As Turner & Townsend, 71 per cent of surveyed markets are facing labour shortages when it comes to data centres.Deloitte found that data centre job postings rose 64 per cent between 2023 and 2025, while postings for electrical technicians increased by more than 180 per cent.Outside AI data centres, blue-collar jobs such as plumbers, mechanics and technicians also remained in high demand. A recent Resume Now report named firefighters as the skilled labour role least likely to be replaced by artificial intelligence.- EndsPublished By: Armaan AgarwalPublished On: Jul 19, 2026 10:20 IST