After power and water strain, US data centers run into new problem

The AI data center boom was supposed to be America's new economic engine—a machine that fattens local tax coffers and mints jobs. But after straining power grids, driving up household utility bills and stoking fears over water and pollution, the industry has hit a wall that money alone can't knock down. There simply aren't enough skilled workers to build all the facilities being planned.The crunch is now serious enough that contractors are turning away business. "There is plenty more work we could take if we could possibly do it," Comfort Systems USA CFO William George told Bloomberg. He isn't alone.