Meta Funds $115 Million Artificial Intelligence Data Center Training Program
- tech360.tv
- 6 hours ago
- 2 min read
Meta is investing USD 115 million to establish a new training programme for data centre technician jobs. The social media giant is racing to build the infrastructure required to power its artificial intelligence ambitions.
The cost-free programme, called America's Workforce Academy, will guarantee job offers to its graduates. Meta Spokesperson said the initiative will provide generalist training for data centre technicians.
Graduates will receive full-time roles with general contractors working on the data centre buildout. The spokesperson declined to specify the number of available positions, the involved firms, and whether the roles would be union jobs.
The Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction trade group, expects to train thousands of people during the programme. Meta President and Vice-chairman Dina Powell McCormick stated that the artificial intelligence revolution brings historic opportunities.
This investment represents a small part of the USD 600 billion Meta pledged for United States infrastructure and jobs over three years. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is making aggressive bets on autonomous artificial intelligence agent technologies.
Zuckerberg aims to build artificial intelligence assistants that create apps, book appointments, and complete transactions. Last year, Zuckerberg offered USD 100 million signing bonuses to recruit artificial intelligence researchers from rival firms.
Meta recently underwent an artificial intelligence restructuring, laying off 10% of its workforce, or about 8,000 employees. The company reassigned nearly 8,000 other workers to units improving artificial intelligence models, and tools.
Data centres generally produce short-term construction booms but create a small number of permanent operational jobs.
For instance, a Texas data centre project expects more than 1,800 workers onsite at peak construction. However, the facility will only create about 100 permanent jobs once it becomes operational.
Similarly, an Oklahoma data centre project will create more than 1,000 peak construction jobs. The facility will yield about 100 operational jobs upon completion.
Meta is investing USD 115 million into a cost-free data centre training programme called America's Workforce Academy.
Graduates of the programme are guaranteed full-time job offers as generalist data centre technicians.
The initiative is part of a larger USD 600 billion pledge by Meta to upgrade infrastructure for autonomous artificial intelligence technologies.
Source: REUTERS
