A hot potato: The AI data center gold rush is now colliding with one of Texas' other major problems: a shortage of homes. Builders say projects are taking up to two months longer to complete because data center operators are hiring away the electricians needed to wire new houses, duplexes, and apartments.
According to The Texas Tribune, Abilene builder Gene Lantrip has seen his construction schedules slide since work began on the massive Stargate AI campus nearby.
The 4 million-square-foot project, backed by OpenAI, Crusoe, and Oracle, is part of a wave of facilities spreading across Texas, which already has more than 300 data centers in operation and around 100 more in the pipeline.
The problem is not that electricians are choosing data centers out of their love of AI; these jobs simply pay more.
Scotty Wristen, owner of WE Electric in Abilene, told the Tribune he can afford to pay workers around $20 an hour. Data center jobs, on the other hand, can offer $35 an hour, plus overtime and per diem benefits. That's a 75% premium, which is difficult for smaller contractors to match.
It's easy to see why the workers are moving. Electrical work can account for 45% to 70% of a data center's entire construction budget, according to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
These facilities require enormous amounts of power to be distributed safely through buildings packed with power-hungry servers, cooling systems, backup equipment, and networking hardware. A house, unfortunately for builders, cannot compete with an AI campus on margins.
The timing could hardly be worse for Texas. The state has added more than 2.6 million residents since 2020, creating heavy demand for new housing.
At the same time, the electrician workforce is aging. Around 20,000 electricians leave the trade nationwide each year, and one in three is between 50 and 70 years old. Texas has roughly 71,000 employed electricians, but new workers require years of apprenticeship and hands-on experience before they can become licensed.
State officials are trying to ease the squeeze by loosening license-transfer rules. Since November, Texas has made it easier for electricians from Iowa, Alabama, and Arkansas to transfer their licenses, and training programs are expanding. That won't help builders who need homes finished today, of course.
The situation adds another item to the growing list of complaints about AI data centers. Communities have already pushed back over electricity demand, water use, noise, tax breaks, and relatively few permanent jobs.