AI Data Centers Need Electricians and HVAC Technicians: What the 2026 Numbers Show

Artificial intelligence lives in buildings. Every chatbot answer and every generated image runs on servers inside a data center. Every data center needs electrical power that never drops and cooling that never stops. That makes the AI buildout a large and growing source of work for two trades in particular — electricians and HVAC technicians.

This article lays out what the public numbers show, what the work inside these facilities looks like, and where a training program fits, including what a program does not do on its own.

The money is going into buildings, power and cooling

In July 2026, Alphabet — Google’s parent company — raised its 2026 capital spending guidance to $195 billion to $205 billion, according to CNBC’s coverage of its second-quarter earnings. Not all of that is construction. Alphabet’s chief financial officer said about 60% of its technical infrastructure spending in the quarter went to servers and the remaining 40% to data centers and networking equipment, as reported by W.Media.

Alphabet is one company. Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are running buildouts of the same kind. The servers come from factories. The buildings, the power systems and the cooling plants that hold them are built and maintained by tradespeople.

Data centers are an electricity story first

In practical terms, a data center is a building designed to turn electricity into computing and then remove the heat that computing creates.

The Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that U.S. data centers used 176 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023, about 4.4% of all U.S. electricity, up from 58 terawatt-hours in 2014. Its scenarios put data centers at 6.7% to 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028 (Berkeley Lab, 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report).

That range is wide on purpose. It depends on how fast facilities get built, how efficient chips become and how much power the rest of the economy uses. Berkeley Lab ties the recent growth largely to AI servers, which need more powerful chips and more intense cooling. Either end of the range means more transformers, switchgear, backup generators and cooling plants — and more people to install and maintain them.

What the federal job projections say

The Bureau of Labor Statistics published its 2025–2035 employment projections in August 2026.

BLS projects employment of electricians to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, which it classifies as much faster than the average for all occupations. BLS names AI technologies and the demand for data centers among the reasons electricity demand is expected to rise (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Electricians).

For HVAC technicians, BLS projects 11% growth over the same decade, with about 40,600 openings each year on average. BLS lists commercial construction, including data centers, as a driver, and notes that many openings come from replacing workers who retire or leave the occupation. Growth across all occupations is projected at about 3% (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, HVAC Mechanics and Installers).

These are national projections. They describe the occupation, not what any one graduate or any one region will see.

Contractors are already competing for workers

The Associated General Contractors of America and NCCER ran their 2026 Workforce Survey in July and August 2026. Among contractors doing data-center work, 58% said those projects had increased competition for skilled workers, and 37% named the availability of workers or subcontractors as their biggest challenge on those jobs. Across all respondents, 36% started or increased spending on training (AGC, September 3, 2026).

The same survey found the broader construction market softening in parts of the country. Data centers are one of the segments keeping demand for skilled trades up while others slow.

What the work looks like inside a data center

The electrical side. Power arrives from the utility at high voltage. Transformers step it down. Switchgear routes it. Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and battery banks carry the load for the seconds between a utility outage and the moment standby generators take over. Power distribution units deliver it to each row of server racks. Electricians install that chain during construction. Facilities technicians test it, maintain it and respond when something in it fails.

The HVAC side. Servers turn almost all the electricity they draw into heat. Chillers, pumps, cooling towers and air handlers move that heat out of the building, and newer AI facilities add liquid-cooling loops that bring coolant close to the chips. Building control systems watch temperatures, pressures and alarms around the clock, and technicians act on what they report.

The skills that come up again and again in this work are three-phase power, reading one-line diagrams and schematics, refrigeration and hydronic systems, controls and sensors, and following written procedures during maintenance and emergencies.

None of those skills belong to data centers alone. Hospitals, semiconductor plants, water treatment facilities and large commercial buildings run on the same backup power and chilled-water systems. An electrician who understands critical power or an HVAC technician who understands chillers can move between industries if one of them slows down.

AI changes the tools, not the wrench

AI will change parts of this work. Technicians already use software to search long equipment manuals, compare alarm histories and draft maintenance reports, and those tools will get better. What they do not do is verify a meter reading, lock out a breaker or replace a failed pump. In high-energy electrical and mechanical systems, instrument readings, approved procedures and a qualified person’s judgment decide what happens next.

Training is the first step, not the whole path

A program builds the foundation. Experience on the job builds the rest.

In California, anyone doing electrical work for a C-10 electrical contractor must be state-certified, in a state-approved apprenticeship, or registered as an electrician trainee enrolled in a state-approved school, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations. Certification comes after supervised work hours and a state exam.

For HVAC, BLS reports that technicians typically complete a postsecondary program and then a lengthy period of on-the-job training. The Environmental Protection Agency requires nearly all HVAC technicians to be certified in refrigerant handling (BLS, HVAC Mechanics and Installers).

Where InterCoast Colleges fits

InterCoast Colleges offers an Electrical Training Program and an HVAC Technician program. The program pages list curriculum, schedules and the campuses where each is offered. InterCoast is accredited by ACCET.

Completing a program is not a promise of a job, and results depend on the student, the local job market and each employer’s requirements. Before you enroll, ask admissions for the School Performance Fact Sheet for your program and campus, and read it.

If the physical side of the AI economy interests you — the power, the cooling and the systems that keep both running — talk to an admissions advisor about the Electrical Training Program or the HVAC Technician program.

Sources