Texas data centers' demand for electricians is delaying housing construction by 2 months

Home construction contractors in Texas say competition for electrical workers from data centers is forcing them to delay projects by as much as two months, reports Jowi Morales in Tom's Hardware.

Texas is experiencing a population boom, with over 2.6 million people migrating to the state since 2020, as well as a data center boom. "This means that a lot of construction projects are competing for specialized electrical workers from the same pool of about 71,000 electricians," Morales explains. Because AI companies can afford to pay electricians more, with 45% to 70% of data center construction budgets earmarked for electrical work, they are siphoning away workers from home builders. 

According to an analysis, around 40% of data center projects are similarly delayed, although some AI companies deny this. "Aside from labor shortages, the build out is also facing constraints in the power supply chain, with half of planned projects affected. This massive push to build as many data centers as possible is just pushing available resources — in chips, energy supply, labor, and everything else related to building and running them — to the brink."