Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the AI boom will actually increase demand for tradespeople like plumbers and electricians, as well as steel and construction workers.
Huang said these workers could earn “six-figure salaries” thanks to “building the largest infrastructure in human history”, which he claims is already worth a few hundred billion dollars.
Huang made the comments during a conversation with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink at the World Economic Forum in Davos today. At the conference, Fink pressed Huang on how he sees AI reshaping the economy and labor market.
To clarify his thinking, Huang broke AI down into a “five-layer cake.” Applications are at the top, followed by AI models, cloud services, chips, and energy at the bottom. According to Huang, the real economic benefits from AI will come when industries such as healthcare, manufacturing and financial services adopt AI. But to get there, countries must first build up the bottom layers of the pie, where trade jobs come from.
“And so we’re talking about six-figure salaries for people who are building chip factories or computer factories or AI factories,” Huang said. “Everyone should be able to live a great life. You don’t need a PhD in computer science to do that.”
As for everyone else, Huang dismissed fears that AI will rapidly wipe out white-collar occupations. He pointed to radiology, an area considered particularly vulnerable because AI systems are good at analyzing images. Huang said that rather than replacing radiologists, AI has helped them become more productive, see more patients and actually increase the number of radiologists.
Asked how this applies to developing countries, Huang argued that they should treat AI infrastructure the same way they treat roads and energy.
“I really believe that every country should be involved in building AI infrastructure, building your own AI, taking advantage of your fundamental natural resource, which is your language and culture,” Huang said. “Develop your AI, continue to refine it, and make your national intelligence part of your ecosystem.”
This sentiment vaguely matches comments made by Palantir CEO Alex Karp at Davos, who said that while AI will destroy jobs in the humanities, it will still leave plenty of work for people with vocational training.
“There will be more than enough jobs for your country’s citizens, especially those with vocational training,” Karp said. “I think these trends make it really hard to imagine why we should have mass immigration unless you have very specific skills.”
Huang ultimately ended the conversation with a call for even greater investment in AI.
All this is quite convenient for someone whose assets are tied to the company that powers one of the bottom layers of this AI cake.
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