Connect | Virginia // DCD Talks why skilled labor is the real hurdle with Ethan Rejto | Path Robotics

Most AI infrastructure conversations focus on GPUs. Far less attention goes to the physical infrastructure that houses those GPUs and delivers the power to run them. Generators, switchgear skids, e-houses, battery enclosures, and utility poles must be built and installed by welders, electricians, machinists, and other skilled trades before a data center comes online.

Data centers aren’t the only ones hiring. The U.S. is trying to rebuild its naval fleet, modernize the grid, and build out AI capacity at the same time. All of it draws on the same small pool of skilled labor, and that pool was already too small and it is now also shrinking.

When skilled crews are spread this thin, quality slips along with the schedule. This session covers where that collision is already hitting data center schedules.