- As many as one in two US data centers planned for 2026 could face delays or cancellations
- The global chip shortage continues to weigh on supply while demand rises
- Other challenges include energy supply and local resistance
Between a third and a half of all US data centers planned for 2026 are likely to be delayed or canceled altogether, Bloomberg reports, amid ongoing supply chain challenges and campus location concerns.
With an estimated 12-16GW of planned capacity, only 5GW is currently under construction and many projects have continued to be announced but with no physical progress yet.
Perhaps one of the most notable is OpenAI’s $500 billion Stargate project, with progress reportedly stalled in Texas and data center buildings falling behind the original timeline.
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Why are data centers canceled or delayed?
One of the biggest challenges facing data center operators, as well as consumers, is the global chip shortage. “AI data center construction is crowding out consumer categories of memory and storage provisioning, which have already seen roughly five-fold and three-fold cost increases since Q1 2025,” wrote Omdia Principal Analyst Ben Yeh.
Data centers are also known for their intensive energy use (something investors say they want more transparency about), and many face challenges in providing reliable power supplies to campuses that need to be up and running 24/7. With grids already under pressure from the adoption of electric vehicles and other electrification strategies across heat and industry, some hyperscale projects have even included plans to build their own power generators and finance connections to the grid.
All this comes at a time when Western countries are looking to reduce their reliance on cheaper and more readily available Chinese technology, with alternative manufacturing in the US struggling to scale quickly enough.
And finally, all that aside, even though data centers have everything they need to start building, local opposition has risen in recent months due to environmental, noise and energy concerns.
All of this shows that the AI boom is no longer limited by chips alone – just in the last few years we’ve seen a shift from being the biggest obstacle to powering infrastructure and local communities.
We can only see how these difficulties play out in the long term, but with space-bound data centers far off, somewhere between a “pipe dream” and early testing phases, ground-based data centers are our only bet for now.
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