"Shortage of electricity, personnel, and equipment"—40% of U.S. data centers may be delayed, AI giants are being choked by insufficient computing power.

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The grand narrative of the expansion of AI infrastructure in the United States is facing a tough reality check.

On Friday, according to data provided to the UK Financial Times by satellite and AI analytics firm SynMax, nearly 40% of data center projects scheduled for completion in the US this year are at risk of delay, with key projects from tech giants like Microsoft and OpenAI expected to be postponed by more than three months.

Meanwhile, according to the Sightline Climate report "2026 Data Center Outlook," of the roughly 16 GW of planned additional data center capacity this year, 30%-50% are expected to face delay or cancellation, and only about 5 GW have actually entered the construction phase.

These bottlenecks are becoming key variables constraining the speed of AI commercial deployment. Oversized cloud computing enterprises have an annual capital expenditure budget exceeding $700 billion, but power shortages, labor shortages, equipment scarcity, and permitting obstacles are collectively lengthening the investment return window, fueling growing market worries about whether huge AI investments can be converted into profits on schedule.

Delays Spread; OpenAI's Texas Deployment Progresses Slowly

Delay issues are particularly evident in OpenAI's core infrastructure projects.

SynMax tracks construction progress via satellite images and cross-references with industry benchmark data from IIR Energy to assess project completion times. The results show significant lag in construction progress at several large campuses associated with OpenAI.

Among the most watched projects is a 1.4 GW data center campus in Shackelford County, Texas, built by Vantage Data Centers, which will provide space for Oracle, who in turn supplies chips and computing power to OpenAI. This 1,200-acre campus plans for 10 buildings, with Vantage stating last August that the first building would be delivered in the second half of 2026. However, satellite images show that as of early April this year, only one of six planned facilities has shown signs of construction. SynMax estimates the first building could be delivered as early as December this year, but extrapolating from typical project progress, it may be delayed to the end of 2027.

In Milam County, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman said last month that a 1.2 GW campus is "taking shape," but satellite images reveal only one facility under construction at present. Among OpenAI’s key Texas projects, only the Abilene site is expected to be completed this year.

In response, OpenAI said, "Our historic data center construction is progressing according to plan and will accelerate from here." Oracle stated, "Every data center we are developing for OpenAI is progressing on schedule, with construction proceeding as planned." SB Energy also said the Milam County data center is "on schedule and may be delivered among the fastest in its class."

Microsoft Projects Also Under Pressure, Permitting and Community Resistance Add Complexity

Microsoft’s data center expansion plans are facing similar challenges.

New cloud computing service provider Nebius last year signed an agreement with Microsoft to build a 300 MW facility in Vineland, New Jersey, aiming to deliver the first batch of capacity by the end of 2025. However, satellite images show the project's subsequent stages have slowed, and thermal imaging indicates related equipment is not yet operational.

The project is also facing permitting challenges and opposition from local residents, with a formal public comment procedure proposed—this step usually implies an extended timeline and signals rising community resistance. Microsoft declined to comment. Nebius said, "So far, all capacity batches under our agreement with Microsoft have been delivered on time, and we currently expect the remaining batches to be completed as scheduled."

Capstone Energy's director Josh Price points out, "The pursuit of speed and development is colliding with regulatory lag. The scale and complexity of these projects will inevitably trigger increased scrutiny and may result in delays."

Triple Bottleneck Overlaps, Logistical Wall Hard to Break Quickly

Behind the delays lies the structural dilemma of power, labor, and equipment shortages.

More than a dozen industry executives told the Financial Times, hundreds of MW-level large campuses are being held back by permitting obstacles and long-term shortages in labor, power, and equipment. According to Bloomberg, severe shortages of electrical equipment such as transformers, switchgear, and batteries are one of the main causes of delay, and domestic US manufacturing capacity is far from sufficient to meet demand, forcing builders to rely on imports.

On the labor front, two construction executives involved in OpenAI-related projects said the number of skilled workers, from electricians to plumbers, is severely insufficient to meet the simultaneous construction of multiple large, complex facilities. Remote locations are also driving labor costs up as much as 30%. SemiAnalysis president Doug O'Laughlin noted that in some regions, project concentration has led even contractors serving the same end client to compete for workforce resources. "OpenAI is essentially competing with itself, as workers move between its projects in pursuit of higher pay."

Tight grid capacity and shortages of equipment such as gas turbines and transformers also act as constraints. Tech giants are racing to build ultra-large data centers with single-site power consumption no less than 1 GW—equivalent to the output of a nuclear reactor—but delayed grid integration is narrowing the feasibility window for project delivery.

Canaccord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas describes the situation as, "The US data center boom is hitting a powerful logistical wall."

Pipeline Blockage, Investment Return Timetable Faces Reassessment

The current delay pressure is no longer limited to projects under construction, but is also spreading to future build pipelines.

SynMax estimates that among projects scheduled for completion next year, more than 60% have yet to start, further increasing industry concerns over expansion pipeline obstruction. Applied Digital CEO Wes Cummins noted, "Financing is hard, logistics are hard, construction and operations are hard... This year we'll see a batch of projects experiencing major delays."

This situation's impact on investors is significant. Mega-scale cloud computing enterprises have pledged over $700 billion in annual capital expenditure, but persistent infrastructure delivery delays mean that the timeline for these investments to convert into monetizable computing power will be longer than expected, pressuring profit expectations and valuation logic for AI-related companies.

Research firm Epoch's data shows that a few 1 GW-level projects may indeed finish this year, including those from Amazon Web Services, Meta, and Elon Musk’s xAI, but these cases highlight exceptions in an otherwise delayed industry rather than the norm.

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