\n But this notion that AI data centers are quickly popping up everywhere is belied by the fact that their construction faces massive hurdles \u2013 regardless of whether anyone wants them in their backyard or not.\n <\/p>\n
\n Construction delays are nothing new: Historically, around 72% of scheduled data center capacity comes online on time, according to Goldman Sachs.\n <\/p>\n
\n But only about half of the AI computing capacity scheduled to activate between now and 2028 via data center construction is actually expected to come online by its target date, Goldman Sachs<\/a> said. Data centers typically take 18 to 24 months to build, but completion times are getting stretched as delays are getting worse.\n <\/p>\n \n Despite $750 billion in AI infrastructure investments this year alone, according to JPMorgan, data centers are struggling to get shovels in the ground. About 60% of data center capacity planned for completion in 2027 hasn\u2019t even begun construction, according to JPMorgan. Another 7% of projects that have gotten underway have since been delayed.\n <\/p>\n \n The planned American data center boom is absolutely massive.\n <\/p>\n \n The United States had 5,427 data centers at the end of last year, according to Stanford University\u2019s AI Index Report<\/a>. That number is set to nearly double: AI companies have announced plans for 3,969 new US data centers, according to Aterio<\/a>, a data center research company.\n <\/p>\n \n Of those, just 802 are currently under construction.\n <\/p>\n \n There\u2019s reason to believe many of those nearly 4,000 planned data centers were never real to begin with: Developers typically submit many simultaneous applications across multiple regions only to pick the most viable one, noted Goldman Sachs.\n <\/p>\n \n That\u2019s why, of the 565 gigawatts of computing power AI companies are currently planning (more than 10 times today\u2019s power), Columbia Business School real estate professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh expects just 180 gigawatts to actually get built over the next decade. Two-thirds of the pipeline is \u201cimplausible,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n \n That still amounts to about $10 trillion of investment \u2013 50% bigger than the next-biggest spending boom from the 19th century railroad expansion.\n <\/p>\n \n But sand is accumulating in the AI gears. That overwhelming demand for data center buildouts has vastly outstripped the industry\u2019s ability to supply it.\n <\/p>\n \n Materials shortages: Building materials have become difficult to source because of surging demand.\n <\/p>\n \n Even if construction materials were readily available, the chips that the massive buildings house are in short supply. That\u2019s particularly true for Taiwan\u2019s TSMC, which fabricates virtually every leading AI chip, including Nvidia\u2019s Blackwell and AMD\u2019s MI300X. That makes TSMC \u201ca single point of dependency in the global AI supply chain,\u201d according to Stanford University\u2019s AI Index report.\n <\/p>\n \n Power shortages: AI\u2019s massive strains on the electrical grid have caused a significant supply and demand imbalance. Data centers already account for roughly 8% of US electricity usage, and that could grow to 12% by 2028, the American Edge Project, an AI data center advocacy group, predicts.\n <\/p>\n \n To compensate, many AI companies are building their own electricity-generation plants. But that plan has hit snags, too: Wait times for generation step-up transformers has tripled, according to JPMorgan. GE Vernova, the largest natural gas turbine manufacturer, reported that bookings for its power generators have doubled to $200 billion over a five-year period.\n <\/p>\n \n Since 2020, inflation for transformers and power regulators has surged the second most of all 47 categories that the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures in its monthly Producer Price Index, a gauge of wholesale inflation.\n <\/p>\n \n Labor shortages: To meet deadlines for the proposed data center buildouts, the United States would need to add 500,000 electricians, 300,000 welders and 550,000 plumbers, according to the American Edge Project. Recent changes in immigration policy haven\u2019t helped.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSome of our clients are developing 24\/7\/365, and contractors are moving around all day, but there\u2019s nothing they can do if all the labor is tied up in existing projects,\u201d said Joe Macejak, head of Marsh Risk\u2019s US property digital infrastructure business.\n <\/p>\n \n Public opposition: About a dozen states have proposed data center building moratoriums, including two states \u2013 New York and Texas \u2013 that recently put those temporary bans into action. Four additional states have taken up similar bills, but they failed to get enacted.\n <\/p>\n \n Bans aren\u2019t the biggest hurdle, though: Getting construction permits approved is, noted Goldman Sachs.\n <\/p>\n \n Despite the delays, spending on data center construction still jumped 7% in June to $68.3 billion, according to a Census Bureau report<\/a>. That was up an astounding 46% from a year earlier.\n <\/p>\n \n A single state-of-the-art AI campus can cost around $8 billion, according to Van Nieuwerburgh.\n <\/p>\n \n There are now 438 unique data center developers with projects in the US, according to Cleanview, an energy data company.\n <\/p>\n![\"Data](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2026-08-04t201339z-1948325884-rc2nxga6ozqm-rtrmadp-3-usa-texas-data-centers.JPG\")
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