Quick take: Data centers now account for more than 41% of all structured cabling installed worldwide, and AI builds need far more fiber than a traditional facility. That turns low-voltage data center work from a line item into a critical-path trade. The subs who can staff and prove qualified crews at scale will win it, and the GCs who choose partners on that basis will hold their schedules.
Low voltage just moved onto the critical path
Low voltage covers systems that carry data and signals, not power: structured cabling and fiber, security, fire alarm, and building controls. On a data center, that scope used to follow the electricians. Now it sets the pace.
Electricians energize a data center. Low voltage teams light it up.
The numbers behind the shift are hard to ignore. ConstructConnect’s October report puts U.S. data center starts at $98.5 billion across 153 projects through August 2026, about 24% of all nonresidential building starts. Through July, starts were already nearly three times the level of a year earlier. North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan had each topped $10 billion by then, with Texas close behind at $9.9 billion.
BSRIA’s Structured Cabling Worldwide 2026 report found the global market grew 21% in 2025 to $9.08 billion, with data center cabling up 54%. Data centers now make up more than 41% of all structured cabling installed, nearly double their 21% share in 2015–2018. The U.S. is the center of it: U.S. sales grew 44% and accounted for 89% of the global increase. And the per-building opportunity keeps growing. Corning has stated that generative AI requires at least 10 times more fiber connections within data centers than traditional builds.
What low voltage crews install on a data center campus
• Structured cabling and fiber backbone: pathways, high-count trunks, terminations and certification testing, from rough-in through pre-commissioning.
• Outside plant and campus fiber: inter-building fiber, vaults and splicing, from site work through building turnover.
• Access control and video: card readers, cameras and head-end equipment, live before owner turnover.
• Fire alarm and very early warning detection: devices, aspirating (VESDA) detection and panel integration, integrated before commissioning.
• Controls and BMS: sensors, cabling and integration for cooling and power monitoring, through commissioning.
When the electricians finish, these crews turn a powered shell into a working data hall.
The work is moving up the value chain
AI isn’t only adding volume. It’s changing what the work requires. Corning’s pre-terminated trunk cables now run up to 6,912 fibers, and the company says its multicore fiber can cut installation labor by up to 60%. Less pulling doesn’t mean less skill. More of a crew’s value now sits in routing, inspection, cleaning, certification testing, and documentation, and one bad termination in a high-count trunk can hold up commissioning for an entire hall.
That’s good news for low voltage firms that can deliver at that level. Precision work is harder to commoditize, and the owners building AI campuses are buying speed. They return to subs who deliver clean test results on schedule.
What the low-voltage data center boom means for subs
The opportunity is real, but capturing it depends on labor, and two factors make low-voltage labor harder to scale than most trades.
Headcount swings hard. Low voltage crews climb fast during rough-in, pulling and termination, then drop for testing and closeout, often by dozens of techs in a matter of weeks. Hiring for the peak isn’t realistic. ABC estimatesconstruction needs about 349,000 net new workers in 2026. The squeeze extends past the jobsite, too: more than half of the data center owners and operators in Uptime Institute’s 2026 Global Data Center Survey report difficulty finding qualified candidates, and Per Scholas notes data center roles can take nearly 60 days to fill, with only 15% of applicants qualified.
How a typical low voltage crew moves through one data hall:
1. Rough-in and pulling: supplier techs ramp up fast around a small W-2 core.
2. Termination: headcount peaks as high-count trunks are terminated and dressed.
3. Testing and certification: crews shrink to the techs who can certify and document links.
4. Closeout: the W-2 core stays; supplier techs roll to the next site.
Skill is hard to prove. A journeyman electrician carries a state license. Low voltage has no consistent equivalent: some states license limited-energy work, many don’t, and fire alarm and security fall under their own rules. BICSI and manufacturer certifications help, but they don’t tell you whether a tech has terminated 6,000-fiber trunks or only office copper. Meanwhile, each hyperscaler sets its own background, drug screen and site training rules, and an uncleared tech gets turned away at the gate.
In our work with low voltage primes on hyperscale sites, the firms growing fastest solve both problems the same way. They keep a core of W-2 foremen and leads who hold the quality standard, then scale crews from a handful of techs to a hundred a day through pre-qualified temps. That model lets them take on projects in new markets without opening a permanent office and move capacity between campuses that never run in sync.
The catch is that temp labor without a program doesn’t scale. Picture a prime running eight projects in three states with six suppliers each. “Tech II” means something different from every supplier, badge requirements live in five places, and nobody knows last week’s labor cost until the invoices arrive. One low voltage prime told us their ops manager spends half his week on timesheets and takes four days to turn last week’s hours into a bill for every supplier on every project.
The subs that win repeat work run labor as one program:
1. Define tech levels yourself, from pulling to certification testing, and have foremen verify them in the field.
2. Clear techs against each owner’s rules before they reach the gate.
3. Hold every supplier to the same role definitions, rates, and compliance requirements.
4. See labor cost by project every week, with W-2 foremen at a burdened rate.
5. Consolidate billing so no project closes with an invoice missing.
6. Rate techs at closeout so your best hands follow you to the next build.
Here’s what step one can look like:
Tech I: pulling, labeling, pathway, and tray support. Verified by foreman sign-off after the first week.
Tech II: copper and fiber terminations, rack dressing. Verified by a foreman field check plus test pass rate.
Tech III: fusion splicing, high-count trunk termination, certification testing. Verified by reviewed test results plus manufacturer certification.
Lead: runs a crew and owns test documentation and closeout. A W-2 foreman or proven supplier lead.
Running labor across several data center sites? See how SLM brings your suppliers into one program.
What it means for GCs
For general contractors, low voltage is now a schedule risk, not a finishing trade. Commissioning can’t start until fiber is certified, security is live, and fire alarm is integrated. A low voltage sub that can’t staff the peak, or gets crews turned away at the gate, delays the whole building.
That changes how GCs should evaluate low voltage bids. Price and past projects still matter, but the better questions are about workforce:
• How will you staff the peak, and through which suppliers?
• How do you define and verify each tech level?
• How do you clear techs against this owner’s badge requirements before they arrive?
• Can you show us who is on site and what your crew cost last week?
A sub with clear answers is a sub that will hold the schedule. GCs that bring low voltage partners in early, coordinating pathways with the electrical scope and planning the labor ramp alongside the rest of the job, give those crews the best chance to deliver.
What’s next for low voltage on AI campuses
Expect the trend toward denser, faster-to-install fiber to continue. Corning’s four-core multicore fiber promises up to 75% fewer connectors and up to 70% less cable mass, and pre-terminated assemblies move more of the work to the factory. Both shrink pulling hours and raise the bar on inspection, testing, and documentation. The crews who can certify high-count links right the first time will be the ones owners ask for by name.
Frequently asked questions
What low voltage work is in a data center? Structured cabling and fiber backbone, outside plant and campus fiber, access control and video, fire alarm and very early warning smoke detection, and the controls and building management systems that monitor cooling and power.
How much fiber does an AI data center need? Corning has said generative AI requires at least 10 times more fiber connections within data centers than traditional builds, and its pre-terminated trunk cables now reach up to 6,912 fibers.
Do low voltage techs need a license? It depends on the state. Some license limited-energy work, many don’t, and fire alarm and security often have separate rules. That’s why contractors define their own tech levels and verify them in the field.
How do low voltage subcontractors staff data center peaks? Most keep a W-2 core of foremen and leads, then scale with pre-qualified labor suppliers during rough-in and termination, and ramp down for testing and closeout.
The takeaway
The data center boom has made low voltage one of the fastest-growing scopes in construction. The subcontractors who can staff, verify, and document crews across a growing portfolio will win the next AI campus, and the GCs who choose partners on that basis will finish theirs on time.
That’s what Smart Labor Management (SLM) does for low voltage and structured cabling contractors. SLM isn’t a staffing agency. It pairs a managed service provider (MSP) team with vendor management system (VMS) software to bring the suppliers you already use into one program, track owner requirements per job, and show labor cost by project across every site. When you need coverage in a new market, SLM introduces vetted structured cabling labor firms, not general staffing. See how SLM supports data center contractors in our Data Center Construction Hub.