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Dive brief:
- CBRE and Meta are teaming up for a multi-year initiative, LevelUp, to recruit and train thousands of fiber technicians to build data centers in the US, the companies announced on Monday.
- The training program aims to address the shortage of fiber technicians needed to build next-generation data center infrastructure. Under the initiative, CBRE will train thousands of workers to install technical infrastructure, fiber optic cables, network equipment and other mission-critical equipment at Meta data center construction sites.
- “We are committed to leveraging the full reach and expertise of CBRE to develop and train a skilled workforce that will support Meta in building its infrastructure,” CBRE CEO Bob Sulentic said in a statement.
Diving knowledge:
Other hyperscalers such as Google and Amazon have launched initiatives to address the skilled labor shortage that is hampering data center development and operations. Google in 2023 launched its Skilled Trades and Readiness, or STAR programwhere it partners with local community colleges and nonprofits to provide training in fiber optic deployment and other skills needed to build and run data centers. And Amazon in 2024 launched its own Information infrastructure pre-learning programwhich offers training in occupational safety, electrical and mechanical systems, fiber and data center operations.
Sustaining outsized growth in the data center market is a focus for CBRE this year, following the company’s $1.2 billion. acquisition of Pearce Services in NovemberSulentic said in the company’s fourth quarter 2025 earnings report. In addition to this purchase, the company’s internal data center solutions business is growing 20% annually and is expected to reach $2 billion by 2026, he said.
The commercial real estate services giant says it serves the data center lifecycle through leasing, capital markets, design, construction, management, maintenance and modernization services for hyperscale, colocation and enterprise customers.
“We have created an integrated offering for the most important hyperscalers, [which] it consists of services related to a data center’s technical infrastructure called white space and building operating systems called gray space, along with traditional facilities management services,” Sulentic said.
Data center and digital infrastructure work across CBRE’s four business segments accounted for roughly 14% of the company’s core EBITDA in 2025, Sulentic said.
Under its partnership with Meta, CBRE will establish and manage several training centers in the US starting this summer. The curriculum will be designed to equip students with skills that are in high demand in the construction and data center industries, providing workers with a “foundation for long-term, transferable careers in the skilled trades sector,” the companies said in the statement.
Graduates will have the opportunity to work on Meta construction sites through Meta’s network of contractors, according to the release.
Meta has 27 data centers under construction or in operation in the US, with more in the planning stages, the companies said. These projects have supported more than 35,000 skilled trade or operational jobs, according to the companies.
“The future of the AI revolution depends on a highly skilled U.S. workforce rising to the challenge of building and maintaining the complex systems that drive innovation,” Dina Powell McCormick, president and vice president of Meta, said in a statement.
