Construction workers are earning up to 30% more and some are nabbing six-figure salaries in the data center boom

Big Tech’s AI arms race is fueling a massive investment surge in data centers with construction worker labor valued at a premium.

Despite some concerns of an AI bubble, data center hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, and Meta continue to invest heavily into AI infrastructure. In effect, construction workers’ salaries are being inflated to satisfy a seemingly insatiable AI demand, experts tell Fortune.

In 2026 alone, upwards of $100 billion could be invested by tech companies into the data center buildout in the U.S., Raul Martynek, the CEO of DataBank, a company that contracts with tech giants to construct data centers, told Fortune.

In November, Bank of America estimated global hyperscale spending is rising 67% in 2025 and another 31% in 2026, totaling a massive $611 billion investment f