When Money Can't Buy Physics
The AI industry just discovered that you can't venture-capital your way out of a transformer shortage. Nearly half of the U.S. AI data centers planned for 2026 are delayed or canceled — not because of GPU scarcity, not because of funding gaps, but because of electrical transformers. High-voltage transformers, to be exact. Lead times have ballooned from 12–18 months to 36–48 months, or even four to five years in some markets.
This is not a temporary hiccup. Of the roughly 12 GW of AI data center capacity announced for 2026, only 5 GW is under active construction. The rest sits in limbo, waiting for equipment that represents under 10% of total project cost but 100% of the critical path.
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