Electric company to invest $700M in expansion at RTP hub to support AI technology demands

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DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) — Schneider Electric just announced a $700 million expansion plan. Its RTP hub will be growing only two-and-a-half years after setting up shop.

The French conglomerate says the company is keeping up with the consumption needs for more AI technology.

“We’re seeing the market growing at about 11% per year in demand, so a lot of interest in that,” said Schneider Electric OME Segment Marketing Manager Mark Duncan.

A report from the United States Chamber of Commerce says the latest data shows our country has 8 million job openings, but only 6.8 million unemployed workers.

The difference is expected to widen and Schneider believes there will be even greater reliance on AI technology.

“We expect by 2030 that’ll be about 2.1 million jobs unfilled,” said Duncan. “Companies are having to react to that to remain competitive or be more competitive and improve their profitability.”

NC State Professor Bill Rand says the RTP investment will help keep the state’s economy strong and that there’s a huge demand for AI-capable employees, who know how to work with the technology.

“There’s a transition to an AI-enabled type of economy, where people are constantly working with these are a regular basis,” said Rand. “Now with AI, you can have one engineer, one software engineer do the work of the previous 10 software engineers.”

The expansion is expected to be finished by the end of September.