Meta's AI Workforce Academy Wins Praise From Former Trump Adviser, Ex-Facebook Exec: 'Hope More Companies Follow Suit'

Meta’s America’s Workforce Academy (AWA), announced on Monday, will train trade workers such as electricians, plumbers, and technicians and offer jobs.

• Venture Capitalist David Sacks, widely known as Donald Trump’s ‘AI and Crypto Czar,’ praised the program, saying that rapid buildout of AI data centers is generating strong demand for blue-collar workers.
• Crucially, the initiative comes amid ongoing layoffs across the tech sector, including at Meta itself, as companies pursue AI-driven efficiencies.
• Stocktwits sentiment for META turned ‘bearish’ from ‘neutral.’

Meta Platforms Inc.’s new initiative to train skilled-trade workers, such as electricians and plumbers, and to offer them jobs received praise from business and policy leaders on Tuesday.

Big Tech companies are spending record amounts to build new data centers to support the rapid growth of AI applications, driving up demand for trade workers who assemble and maintain the critical infrastructure behind these facilities.

“The AI infrastructure boom is generating strong demand for skilled blue-collar workers. In fact, there’s a shortage of electricians, fiber technicians, and mechanical tradespeople needed to build and maintain AI data centers,” said David Sacks, a venture capitalist who was recently an adviser to President Donald Trump on AI and cryptocurrency policy.

“Meta’s new $115M America’s Workforce Academy provides paid training plus job guarantees for exactly these roles. This is the kind of practical jobs training program that we need more of,” Sacks wrote on X.

Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya, who worked as a senior executive at Meta, then known as Facebook, from 2007 to 2011, called the initiative “really amazing.”

“If they can take a U.S. median income worker ($50k), train them and then place them into a $100k+ job it’s transformational. If done at scale, across all of the planned AI infrastructure buildout in America, this is upwards of 1MM jobs. Doubling the median income of 1MM Americans is nothing short of an economic miracle,” Palihapitiya wrote on X, adding that more companies should follow suit.

On Monday, Meta launched the America’s Workforce Academy (AWA), committing an initial $115 million in its first year. The tuition-free program provides financial support to participants during training, guarantees employment upon graduation, and awards graduates with a credential from the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) along with an America’s Workforce Certificate.

This program will launch in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Texas as the 2026 pilot locations, Meta said in a blog post, adding that its fiber installation training program received 35,000 applications in the first seven days after it opened.

Crucially, the initiative comes amid ongoing layoffs across the tech sector, including at Meta itself, as companies pursue AI-driven efficiencies and redirect resources toward AI development and related projects. 

Amazon, Snap, and Salesforce are among the firms that have cut thousands of jobs in recent months. Meta, for its part, eliminated about 7,000 positions – nearly 10% of its workforce – while also reassigning a similar number of employees to new roles internally.

META stock has shed over 11% in 2026, and the retail sentiment for the stock dropped to ‘bearish’ from ‘neutral’ on Wednesday.

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