NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) CEO Jensen Huang has a way of turning things to gold. He has spent much of 2026 explaining that the AI buildout needs hands, not just chips. On a recent The Shawn Ryan Show podcast, the host put trade guru Mike Rowe on the spot: “Jensen Huang keeps saying the tradesman is going to be the next millionaire class … Do you think there’s truth to that?” Rowe’s answer cut to the point: “I know there’s truth to it … I have a thousand success stories to back it up.”
The NVIDIA CEO’s thesis is that AI factories, semiconductor fabs, and the grid to power them require electricians, pipefitters, and HVAC crews at a scale the U.S. has not seen in a generation. Earl Duke Austin, CEO of specialty contractor Quanta, already attached a number on the opportunity: a $2.4 trillion total addressable market through 2030 from converging utility, generation, and large-load demand.
The five contractors below are the publicly traded on-ramp to that trade, and they are already printing.
1. IES Holdings: Diamond in the Rough
IES Holdings (NASDAQ:IESC) is the name most portfolios do not own yet. At a market cap of roughly $12.3 billion, this Houston-based electrical and technology systems installer sits directly in the path of hyperscaler capex. Its Communications segment builds the guts of data centers, and management is not shy about where the money is coming from.
The March quarter revealed a lot in three data points. Communications revenue rose 35% year over year to $367.7 million, which the company attributed to “continued strong demand in the data center market,” adding that “the recent capital investments we have made have positioned us well to respond to that demand and deliver solutions to our customers.”
Infrastructure Solutions revenue jumped 64% to $192.4 million, and total backlog exploded to $3.86 billion, a 62% increase since the end of fiscal 2025, fueled by customer demand and expansion capacity. CEO Matt Simmes tied it all to one end market: “Strong growth in our Communications and Infrastructure Solutions businesses has continued, driven by strong demand, particularly in the data center end market.” Shares are up 59.19% year to date.
IESC is the smallest name on this list. The next one is the largest, and it just told Wall Street it plans to double earnings by 2030.
2. Quanta Services: The Heavyweight
Quanta Services (NYSE:PWR) is the electrical grid contractor America cannot build data centers without. If a hyperscaler wants 500 megawatts in West Texas, the transmission lines, substations, and interconnects run through Quanta. With a market cap near $99.9 billion alongside Wall Street’s 22 buy or strong-buy ratings against zero sells, this is the institutional core of the trade.
Q1 2026 was a blowout. Revenue hit $7.87 billion, up 26.3% year over year, adjusted EPS of $2.68 beat the $2.03 consensus by 31.88%, and backlog rocketed to a record $48.5 billion. Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to a range of $34.70 billion to $35.20 billion in revenue and $13.55 to $14.25 in adjusted EPS. CEO Duke Austin laid out the long game: a path to “more than doubling our adjusted EPS by 2030,” the same horizon many AI infrastructure forecasts point to. Shares have already added 57.87% year to date.
3. Comfort Systems USA: The HVAC Kingmaker
Comfort Systems USA (NYSE:FIX) is the mechanical contractor that keeps AI chips from melting. Data center and technology infrastructure now accounts for roughly 45% of company revenue, and management says demand still exceeds supply.
On the Q1 call, finance chief Bill George shared a change in dynamic: “In the 30 years I’ve been watching this industry, almost the whole time, whenever you saw deceleration or whenever you saw limitations until the last couple of years in sort of the ability to convert revenue or book work, it was a demand issue. Today, I think it’s really important for people to understand that it’s a supply issue. There is plenty more work we could take if we could possibly do it.”
The numbers back him up. Q1 2026 revenue reached $2.87 billion, up 56.5% year over year, with organic growth of 51%. Diluted EPS of $10.51 obliterated the $6.81 consensus by 54.44%, and backlog climbed to $12.45 billion, nearly double the $6.89 billion of a year earlier. Shares are up 80.5% year to date.
FIX rides the mechanical side. The next name owns the electrical build, and its record performance obligations tell a story analysts are still catching up to.
4. EMCOR Group: The Workhorse
EMCOR Group (NYSE:EME) is the diversified specialty contractor with a $34.2 billion market cap and an army of electricians, pipefitters, and mechanical trades attacking every mission-critical sector at once: Network and Communications, Water and Wastewater, Healthcare, and Institutional. Its U.S. Electrical Construction segment posted 33.1% revenue growth in Q1 2026 while Mechanical Construction added 28.8%. This is the diversified way to own the trade.
Three data points from Q1 2026 do the work. Diluted EPS of $6.84 beat the $5.90 consensus by 15.85%, Remaining Performance Obligations hit a record $15.62 billion, up 32.9% year over year, and management raised full-year 2026 guidance to $18.50 billion to $19.25 billion in revenue with EPS of $28.25 to $29.75.
CEO Tony Guzzi called out “record quarterly revenues and strong operating performance … sustained momentum across several key market sectors and geographies.” He flagged that remaining performance obligations (RPOs) have revisited record levels. The stock has returned 40.4% over the past year, per MarketWatch data, and the trade-labor supercycle is arguably just beginning. For investors looking for the picks-and-shovels layer of the AI trade beyond the chip designers, EMCOR is a textbook example of the theme explored in the 7 Stocks Powering the AI Boom (That Aren’t Chipmakers) report.
EMCOR is the diversified play. The final name is the concentrated one, and it just landed a project that could compound for a decade.
5. Sterling Infrastructure: The Payoff
Sterling Infrastructure (NASDAQ:STRL) is what happens when a mid-cap engineering firm bets the house on mission-critical work and gets the timing right. Over 90% of its E-Infrastructure signed backlog is now mission-critical work: data centers, semiconductor fabrication, and next-generation manufacturing. In April, the company disclosed it had been selected as the site development partner for a mega-fab semiconductor campus, with CEO Joe Cutillo stating: “This first phase, which will be executed under a joint venture, totals over $500 million and is expected to be completed in late 2027 or early 2028. The campus build is expected to span a multi-decade period and presents opportunities for additional scopes of work through 2027 and beyond.”
Then came the math. Q1 2026 EPS of $3.59 crushed the consensus by a double-digit percentage, revenue jumped 91.59% to $825.7 million, and E-Infrastructure Solutions revenue rocketed 174% year over year to $597.7 million at a 23.5% adjusted operating margin. Management raised the full-year guidance to adjusted diluted EPS of $18.40 to $19.05, implying 72% growth at the midpoint.
Cutillo’s tell about the labor squeeze that sits at the center of the entire blue-collar millionaire thesis: “I just wish I had 2,000 or 3,000 more electricians, we would grow it even faster.”
The Bottom Line
Every name on this list is monetizing the same physical build: the electricians, HVAC techs, and site crews turning Jensen Huang’s AI factories into concrete, copper, and cooling. Backlogs are at record highs, guidance is being raised across the board, and management teams are telling analysts the constraint is labor, not demand.
Cyclicality and execution risk are real, but the capex cycle behind this trade runs through 2030 on the calendars of every hyperscaler and utility in the country. The trade-labor economy is repricing, and the contractors who employ it are already showing investors what that looks like. Just ask Jensen.
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