Jen-Hsun Huang calls the AI era the most in-demand for electricians; do blue-collar workers in Taiwan really earn more?

NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang predicts a golden decade for tech talent, but is this AI-driven blue-collar renaissance a highway to financial freedom, or just a gilded cage? (Background: A lawyer's article on UBI and Blockchain as a social safety net in the AI wave?) (Additional context: Replit CEO: AI has sounded the death knell for SaaS, the next 'Satoshi Nakamoto' is on the way) Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, recently stated in an interview that in order to meet the construction needs of global data centers and semiconductor factories, the demand for electricians, pipe technicians, carpenters... these familiar yet unfamiliar 'craftsmen' will grow exponentially. As AI gradually begins to replace many white-collar job opportunities, will this AI-driven blue-collar renaissance change Taiwan's past 'diploma worship' situation? The counterattack of value: when skills become harder currency than diplomas. For a long time, the mainstream narrative in Taiwanese society has been linear: study hard, get into a good university, enter the office, and become a 'white-collar' worker, which is the highway to the middle class. However, Jen-Hsun Huang's reminders and the cold data from the market are telling a completely different story. Let's temporarily put aside our romantic notions of office buildings and step into the reality of construction sites and factories. According to an in-depth analysis of Taiwan's labor market, the wealth accumulation path for technical blue-collar workers is much steeper than most people imagine. An apprentice plumber's starting salary can reach NT$40,000 to NT$55,000 per month, a figure that has already surpassed the median starting salary of many university graduates in administrative roles (around NT$33,000). This means that the blue-collar career has achieved financial superiority from day one. More crucial is the growth trajectory. When a university graduate in an administrative position has spent ten years in the office, their median monthly salary may slowly rise to NT$37,000; a similarly experienced, independently working 'master' plumber has long since broken the million-dollar annual salary barrier, leaving the income of most white-collar workers far behind. The driving force behind this is the most ancient and ruthless law of economics: supply and demand. As Taiwanese society has spent three generations telling young people that 'not going to university means being a failure,' we have unintentionally created two extremes: one is the 'monetary easing' of university diplomas, and the other is the 'talent deflation' of professional skills. White-collar spectrum: stories from two worlds. Of course, it's not that white-collar jobs are not lucrative; rather, 'white-collar' is no longer a single group but has differentiated into two worlds. One end is the elite layer, represented by the technology and finance sectors. Semiconductor employees can earn over NT$3 million annually, and the starting salaries for finance industry MAs range from NT$65,000 to NT$80,000, with the top ten financial holding companies averaging over NT$1.5 million, and Yuanta Financial even reaching NT$2.02 million. The other end is the median white-collar: administrative, marketing, and general professional positions. By 2025, the national median monthly salary is expected to be NT$40,000, while administrative personnel with ten years of experience still earn around NT$37,000; marketing specialists generally earn between NT$30,000 to NT$49,000... these positions have slow salary growth, in stark contrast to high-paying industries. On average, the income of technical blue-collar workers has already surpassed that of median white-collar workers. Plumbers, welders, and automotive technicians earn annual salaries ranging from NT$700,000 to NT$1.2 million, which is 1.5 to 2 times that of similarly experienced administrative personnel. Salary comparison analysis between blue-collar and white-collar workers (annual salary, NT$, 5-10 years of experience). A gilded cage? The glories of the windfall and unspoken costs. However, while we cheer for this 'blue-collar renaissance,' we must also maintain a scalpel-like calm. Any explosive demand driven by a single industry may come with cyclical risks and hidden costs. Are we only seeing a gilded cage? First, there's the 'cyclical risk.' The enormous demand mentioned by Jen-Hsun Huang mainly comes from the 'construction phase' of AI infrastructure. Fortune reports that a data center built in the U.S., covering an area of about 250,000 square feet, can create up to 1,500 jobs during the construction phase, but the long-term maintenance personnel required after completion is only 50. When this wave of global data center and semiconductor factory construction reaches its peak and begins to slow, where will these sought-after, million-dollar-a-year technical talents go? Will this surge in blue-collar demand turn out to be a huge 'construction bubble'? Secondly, there is the 'physical depletion' of blue-collar workers. Exquisite salary analysis reports often overlook the most important factor: health. Behind high salaries are high-intensity physical labor, higher risks of occupational injury, longer working hours, and worse working environments. How much of this high salary is a 'prepayment' for their future health costs? Compared to white-collar workers who might work in a temperature-controlled office until they are 65, how long can blue-collar workers' careers last? This is a cruel question that cannot be seen in financial statements but concerns life. Finally, as mentioned above, Taiwan's white-collar class is experiencing severe polarization. One end consists of elites in the semiconductor, AI software, and finance sectors, linked to the global talent market, earning hundreds of thousands annually; the other end is a large number of grassroots personnel in administrative, marketing, and other fields, whose salaries stagnate around the national median. Therefore, the more accurate reality is: the income flywheel of top white-collar workers is accelerating, while the rise of technical blue-collar workers is reshaping the entire salary spectrum structure, surpassing 'median white-collar workers.' This tearing apart of 'two worlds' is the most authentic portrayal of Taiwan's job market. When university diploma inflation confronts technical talent deflation. This salary inversion between blue-collar and white-collar workers ultimately acts like a mirror, reflecting the deepest anxieties and crises within Taiwan's higher education system. It brutally reveals a reality: our society may be funding a system that issues diplomas with continually 'inflating' market value, while truly high-value talent, in a 'deflationary' state, comes from the long-neglected vocational training cradle. This poses a fundamental challenge to the 'business model' of universities. If a general studies degree from a non-top university has lower starting salaries and future potential than an apprentice from a vocational training system, then what is the value of that diploma? What is the Return on Investment for four years of time and hundreds of thousands in tuition? This is not just a question of whether tuition is reasonable, but indicates that a wave of university 'closures' or painful 'transitions' may be inevitable. Only when parents and students can view 'becoming a top technician' and 'entering a top university' as two equally valuable options when planning for the future can the true paradigm shift be considered complete. An unavoidable re-evaluation of values. From Jen-Hsun Huang's prophecy to Taiwan's salary data, we are experiencing a profound social re-evaluation of values. This is no longer a confrontation between 'blue-collar' and 'white-collar' but a showdown between 'scarce skills' and 'excess diplomas.' The giant wheel of the AI era not only creates an unprecedented demand for top knowledge elites at an unprecedented speed but also bestows unparalleled value and bargaining power on builders and maintainers of the physical world. For individuals, this is an era filled with challenges and opportunities. It requires us to break the stereotypes of specific professions and return to the most fundamental question: what I have learned is either easily replaceable 'information' or 'skills' that can solve real problems? For the entire Taiwanese society, this transformation is even more of a mirror, forcing us to re-examine our educational investments, industrial policies, and social welfare systems.