Americans are rallying against data centers. Surprisingly few are getting built
Despite significant public opposition and political pushback, the primary reason AI data centers are not being built quickly is due to massive construction and infrastructure delays. Data from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan suggests that a large portion of planned capacity is unlikely to meet its target completion dates.
Why it matters
It clarifies that infrastructure and logistical hurdles, rather than just public sentiment, are the main bottlenecks for the AI boom.
People really don’t like AI data centers. Politicians are running against them. A recent Gallup poll showed 71% of Americans oppose them. Several counties and states have proposed or passed laws to ban them. But this notion that AI data centers are quickly popping up everywhere is belied by the fact that their construction faces massive hurdles – regardless of whether anyone wants them in their backyard or not. Delays Construction delays are nothing new: Historically, around 72% of scheduled data center capacity comes online on time, according to Goldman Sachs. 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 said. Data centers typically take 18 to 24 months to build, but completion times are getting stretched as delays are getting worse.
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