Data Center Delays Hit 40% of US AI Projects as Power Shortages and Local Resistance Mount

Construction delays hit 40% of US data centers planned for 2026

Silicon Valley has been pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into building ever-larger AI data centers that require as much electricity as hundreds of thousands of US homes -- but that massive buildout faces significant construction and power challenges along with growing local resistance. Now satellite imagery is showing how nearly 40 percent of US data center projects may fail to be completed this year as scheduled. The Financial Times drew upon satellite imagery from the geospatial data analytics company SynMax showing how much progress has been made in clearing land and laying building foundations for each data center project. It also cross-checked project progress against public statements and permit documents compiled by the industry research group IIR Energy. The resulting analysis revealed how major projects from tech companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and OpenAI are "likely to miss completion dates by more than three months." Interviews with more than a dozen industry executives highlighted data center delays caused by "chronic shortages of labor, power and equipment" along with the process of securing the necessary permits, according to the Financial Times. Construction executives involved with OpenAI projects specifically mentioned not having enough tradespeople, such as electricians and pipe fitters, to work on multiple data center projects. The substantial power demand requirements of the planned data center buildout also represent a huge energy bottleneck, especially as utility companies struggle to build enough power generation and to expand the power infrastructure necessary to deliver more electricity. Tariffs on imported Chinese equipment such as transformers have only made the situation worse for Silicon Valley's AI ambitions. Many tech companies are even installing their own onsite power plants, with a heavy reliance on natural gas turbines. An analysis by the market intelligence platform Cleanview highlighted data center developers using mobile gas generators on semi trucks and turbine engines originally designed for aircraft and warships. There is also growing resistance from communities all across the US to data centers. For example, Virginia, known as "the data center capital of the world," has seen public opinion turn sharply against new data center development. In a recent poll, a majority of Virginians described concerns about data center land use and environmental impacts, along with worries about the negative impact on home electricity bills. It has now been well documented that data center development can pressure utility companies to raise electricity bills for all local and regional customers. The Trump administration responded to concerns about the energy costs surrounding data centers in March 2026 by announcing major tech companies as having signed on to a Ratepayer Protection Pledge, although the agreement lacks any meaningful legal enforcement or practical implementation. Microsoft on its own has pledged to pay the full electricity costs for its data centers in an effort to prevent broader rate increases for local communities. Such gestures have not stopped local lawmakers from considering statewide bans on data center development. Maine legislators recently became the first to pass an 18-month moratorium on approvals for new data centers requiring more than 20 megawatts of power, although Maine Governor Janet Mills must still decide whether to veto the legislation or let it become law.

Analytics group signals possible delays at 40% of AI data center construction sites -- companies deny schedule holdups, but satellite imagery indicates otherwise

Can these lofty timelines face the reality of labor and material shortages? Several U.S. data centers slated for completion in 2026 are at risk of being delayed as strict schedules encounter regulatory friction, supply chain bottlenecks, and the lack of available utility. According to a report by the Financial Times, major data center projects involving Microsoft, OpenAI, and other tech companies will miss projected deadlines by more than three months. The estimate is based on data from SynMax, a geospatial data analytics company that uses satellite imaging and AI to deliver real-time insights and predictive analytics on the maritime and energy sectors. Satellite imagery is used to estimate progress on various construction projects, looking for various milestones like land clearing and foundation work. It's then cross-checked against industry intelligence, including public statements, regulatory and permit documents, and on-the-ground interviews. For example, a 1,200-acre, 10-building campus is under construction in Shackelford County, Texas, for Oracle, which it will then equip for OpenAI. The entire project is expected to have a 1.4-GW capacity and a delivery date in the latter half of 2026, but imagery from early April 2026 shows that only six plots of land have been cleared for construction, with only one of them showing signs of development. SynMax estimates that one building could possibly be delivered by the end of the year, but a more realistic timeline sees this pushed to 2027. Another OpenAI-linked project, a 1.2-GW site in Milam County, Texas, is showing signs of slow progress, with only one building under construction as seen from space. The companies involved in these data center projects denied the reported delays. "Our historic data center build-out is on schedule and we will accelerate from here," OpenAI told the publication. "In partnership with Oracle, SB Energy and a broader ecosystem of partners, we are delivering rapid progress in Abilene, Shackelford County and Milam County in Texas." Oracle also said to FT, "Each data center we're developing for OpenAI is moving forward on time, and construction is proceeding according to plan," while SB Energy noted that "The Milam County Data Center is on schedule and on pace to be one of the fastest data centers of its kind ever delivered." People on the ground report otherwise, though. Construction executives report that the building sites are lacking in specialist workers like electricians and pipe fitters, an issue that has been reported since late 2025. Note that OpenAI's data center projects aren't the only ones apparently suffering from a delay, with another recent report claiming that half of planned U.S. data centers are reportedly being canceled or delayed because of shortages. Building the structures to house AI GPUs isn't the only bottleneck in building the data centers -- local utility providers are straining to catch up with the increased demand for electricity. Even though AI companies are supposedly paying for the needed infrastructure upgrades required to supply the massive amounts of electricity these data centers will consume, it will take time to order, deploy, and build the necessary systems that will deliver the power that AI GPUs demand. Some AI hyperscalers are turning to on-site generators like turbines as an alternative power source, but these require EPA permits, adding regulatory friction. Furthermore, jet engines are suffering from their own supply chain shortages, with orders from 2025 being slated for a 2028 to 2030 delivery. These delays do not mean that the projects will not be built, only that they will take longer than expected. This might get investors, who are pouring in trillions of dollars on these projects, feeling antsy, though, as they still cannot see the massive returns that they're expecting to materialize in the next few years, if these AI data centers can even turn a profit at all. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Data centre delays threaten to choke AI expansion

Delays to a swath of new US data centres threaten to slow the rollout of AI by the world's biggest tech companies, with almost 40 per cent of all projects due this year at risk of falling behind schedule. Major projects for Microsoft, OpenAI and other tech groups are likely to miss completion dates by more than three months, according to data shared with the FT by SynMax, a satellite and AI analytics group. More than a dozen industry executives said campuses targeting hundreds of megawatts are being held up by permitting hurdles and chronic shortages of labour, power and equipment. The bottlenecks are emerging as a key constraint on how quickly companies can turn vast spending on AI into revenue, raising concerns that billions in planned investment will take longer than expected to generate returns. Hyperscalers are racing to build ever-larger data centres, pushing to bring facilities online that will draw at least 1 gigawatt of electricity -- roughly a nuclear reactor's output. A handful of such projects are expected to complete this year, according to research group Epoch, including developments by Amazon Web Services, Meta and Elon Musk's xAI. But likely delays at many others highlight a growing gap between the scale of investment in AI and operators' ability to deliver the infrastructure needed to support it. "Financing at this scale is hard," said Wes Cummins, chief executive of data centre operator Applied Digital. "Logistics are hard. Construction and operations are hard." To assess likely completion dates, SynMax uses satellite imagery to track construction progress from land clearing to foundation work. It cross-checks this against industry benchmarks compiled by IIR Energy, an industry research group, which tracks public statements, permit documents and conducts on-the-ground interviews. One of the most prominent is a 1.4GW campus in Shackelford County, Texas, being developed for Oracle, which will in turn equip it with chips and provide computing capacity to OpenAI. The 1,200-acre site is expected to host 10 buildings. Vantage Data Centers, the group constructing the site, in August said the first building was due for delivery in the second half of 2026. Satellite imagery shows land cleared for six planned facilities, but as of early April only one showed signs of development. SynMax estimates the earliest possible delivery date for the first building is December, while a timetable in line with most comparable projects would push it out to late 2027. Other OpenAI-linked campuses also appear to be progressing slowly. In Milam County, Texas, where Greg Brockman last month said a 1.2GW site was "taking shape", satellite imagery shows construction has begun on only one facility. Of the group's major Texas projects, only one in Abilene is expected to complete this year. OpenAI said: "Our historic data centre build-out is on schedule and we will accelerate from here. In partnership with Oracle, SB Energy and a broader ecosystem of partners, we are delivering rapid progress in Abilene, Shackelford County and Milam County in Texas." Oracle said: "Each data centre we're developing for OpenAI is moving forward on time, and construction is proceeding according to plan." SB Energy said: "The Milam County Data Center is on schedule and on pace to be one of the fastest data centres of its kind ever delivered." Two construction executives working on OpenAI-linked projects said there were not enough specialist workers, from electricians to pipe fitters, to meet demand across the build-out as companies race to construct clusters of increasingly large and complex facilities. Strained grid capacity and shortages of equipment such as gas turbines and transformers are also causing delays. Remote locations are pushing labour costs up as much as 30 per cent, they added. Doug O'Laughlin, president of SemiAnalysis, said the concentration of projects in some regions was intensifying competition even between providers serving the same end customer. "OpenAI is [in effect] competing with OpenAI," he said. "Workers are moving between projects in search of better pay cheques." "For those who stick around, even if they are doing double shifts, it's going to be hard to meet these schedules," he added. Nebius, a so-called neocloud that builds computing capacity for clients, struck a deal with Microsoft last year to make a 300MW facility in Vineland, New Jersey, successfully completing the first tranche of capacity by the end of 2025. Satellite imagery suggests the latest phases of the project are progressing more slowly, with structures in place but timelines slipping. Thermal imagery taken at the site indicates that equipment has yet to come online. The Vineland project has faced permitting challenges and local opposition. A formal public comment process has also been requested, a step that typically extends timelines and signals growing community resistance. Microsoft declined to comment. Nebius said: "All capacity tranches under our agreement with Microsoft to date have been delivered on time, and we currently expect to deliver the remaining tranches on schedule. As of now we are not aware of issues that would materially affect this." SynMax estimates more than 60 per cent of projects scheduled for next year have yet to begin construction, adding to concerns over delays to the industry's expansion pipeline. "There's a focus on speed and development brushing up against regulatory lag," said Josh Price, an energy director at Capstone, a strategy firm. "The scale and complexity of these projects is necessarily going to lead to more scrutiny and potentially delays." Cummins at Applied Digital said: "We're going to see a number of blow-ups and delays this year. My focus is on making sure it's not us."

Local political revolts threaten to derail US data center projects -- mounting delays are already costing AI hyperscalers billions

Rejected proposals, moratoriums, cancelled rezoning, rallies, and fliers are all hampering the AI build out. AI companies have a compute problem. As the usage of artificial intelligence is increasing among working adults in the U.S., computing power has become a precious resource that hyperscalers cannot ignore. To that end, we've seen a significant explosion in the number of planned data center projects throughout the globe. But those efforts are now facing roadblocks from local communities. Just this week, a small town in Missouri ousted half of its city council for not doing their due diligence in protecting local communities from the harms of AI data center construction, and they're pushing to remove the rest of them, the mayor included. A resident of Claremore, Oklahoma, was arrested in February for speaking too long during a town hall meeting to discuss a data center project. In Virginia, voter support for data centers has collapsed to just 35% from 69% in 2023, halting efforts to build what would have been one of the largest data centers in the country. Suffice to say, while major data center projects are the darling of tech CEOs and many politicians, the general populace is making its voice heard; through collective action, they are putting the brakes on $10's of billions of dollars of investment and derailing the plans of major corporations. As of the time of writing, half of all planned U.S. data center builds have been delayed. Making small voices heard 2025's major AI infrastructure announcements carried a measure of inevitability. OpenAI was investing $100 billion here, $300 billion there, and Nvidia's chips were going to consume tens of gigawatts of power the world over. Regardless of all the talk of circular investments surrounding these companies, the projects were going to go ahead, regardless. Politicians fawned over the big numbers and the growth potential these major companies would bring to their local areas. But while these data center projects might promise temporary construction jobs and investment in local communities, they also bring the potential for water contamination, skyrocketing energy prices, and even air pollution as companies ship in 'illegal' gas turbines just to get the servers up and running. So, local communities have pushed back in major ways. Where their local politicians would listen, they worked with them to halt these projects in their tracks. In Maine, Reuters reports that lawmakers recently passed a bill that would place a moratorium on new data centers over 20 megawatts in power being constructed until October 2027, giving time to conduct analyses on the construction process and how it might affect local communities and utilities. The Tulsa City Council ultimately issued a temporary moratorium on data center construction through the end of the year. A San Marcos city council voted in February to reject a rezoning effort that would have cleared the way to build a 200-megawatt data center next to a local power station. Parks over data centers Some of the voices calling for these data centers to be built are quite persuasive. Lawmakers argue that the projects can bring in tens of millions of dollars in local tax revenue, which could help unlock laundry lists of long-wished-for projects. Union construction workers are keen to see these multi-year megaprojects go ahead because of the guaranteed long-term work for their members. Developers are also claiming that fears of water contamination are unfounded and that noise pollution can also be kept to a minimum. Some companies, like Meta, are even bolstering their efforts by announcing small-scale grants for projects near their data centers. In a rural Brown County village, residents started getting offers of up to $120,000 per acre of land to sell up to a Delaware-based LLC linked with Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a company linked with another data center development in Port Washington, which has also received heavy local pushback. They didn't sell up, though, and Cloverleaf has since pulled out of the project entirely. In New Brunswick, a 22-acre site was under consideration for a data center project, but following fierce local pushback, the town council modified the proposal to mandate that a park be constructed instead. Determined opposition The pushback against these projects has been robust and coordinated, with often sizeable portions of local communities speaking at local events and town halls to voice their concerns. They aren't always successful, but even then, the opposition is fierce and ongoing, with residents showing a real willingness to continue fighting with projects even after construction has started. A major component of that is political retribution. The town councils and other local political figures who allowed projects to continue will be up for election before long. One resident of Calvert County, whose commissioners didn't vote through a moratorium on data center construction, waved goodbye to them from the microphone, prompting cheers. "You're not going [to] be here anymore," she told them, as the Washington Post reported. "You're out. You're gone." With primaries for elections of those positions in June, it may not take long for voter intention to be felt by those currently representing them. In the most violent examples of anti-AI pushback, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's home was fire bombed, and a council member in Indianapolis received a threatening note and bullet holes in his home after voting through a data center project. Part of the public's ire surrounding Artificial Intelligence, and the data centers which support the industry, is that the technology is also becoming a scapegoat for job losses, as OpenAI's Sam Altman warned earlier this month. In the most recent example, the tech industry laid off almost 80,000 workers in the first quarter of 2026, with almost half of the expected positions cut, due to the reported impact of AI. Despite the wide public feedback, some lawmakers are onside with working hand-in-hand with local communities, ensuring their views are taken into consideration while plans are being made. However, if governments ignore them, the public response could plunge hyperscaler plans into jeopardy.

Permitting Hurdles and Labor Shortages Threaten AI Data Center Timelines | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. The company also found that 60% of projects scheduled for next year have not yet begun construction, according to the report. SynMax uses satellite imagery to track construction progress and cross-checks this information against benchmarks compiled by industry research group IIR Energy to assess likely completion dates, per the report. Industry executives interviewed by the FT said delays are being caused by problems around permitting, local opposition and shortages in labor, power and equipment. However, four companies involved in the development of data centers told the FT their projects are on track. When asked about their projects by the FT, OpenAI, Oracle, digital infrastructure and energy platform SB Energy and AI cloud company Nebius said the projects are on schedule. This report comes at a time when the market for AI infrastructure is booming. It was reported April 1 that as the demand for AI services continues to surge, companies are facing a shortage of data center space that is restraining their business. As a result, companies such as Meta, Google and Amazon recently said they plan to spend tens of billions of dollars more this year than they expected to meet the demand of AI. It was reported on April 10 that alternative asset manager Blackstone is considering a $2 billion initial public offering (IPO) for an acquisition company that would buy data centers. PYMNTS reported in October that as demand for AI training large models rises, traditional providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are facing limits in available capacity. This gap has created an opportunity for smaller infrastructure firms known as "neoclouds" that lease clusters of graphics processing units (GPUs) to AI developers and enterprises that need computing resources on short notice. PYMNTS reported in November 2024 that tech firms and other companies that depend on AI for their daily operations were facing infrastructure bottlenecks cause in part by America's outdated power grid. While foreign markets move quickly to build power systems for next-generation computing facilities, American utilities have lengthy deployment pipelines for new electrical capacity.