The difficulty of delivering capacity has left SoftBank-backed SB Energy with zero completed data centers despite needing $174B to satisfy $430B in contracted revenue largely tied to OpenAI. Nvidia-backed Nscale had only 25,000 GPUs operational in August compared to 461,000 active and contracted, leading Anthropic to include termination clauses in its $44.6B deal with the firm. To secure compute fast enough, both OpenAI and Anthropic have increasingly accepted higher costs and developers with less experience.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
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47 Major US AI Data Centers Blocked or Delayed in 2026
AI2 days ago
Over 1,000 American communities have attempted to restrict new construction as the massive investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure hits a wall of regulatory and financial hurdles. At least 47 major US data center projects were delayed, withdrawn or blocked in 2026, and Bernstein estimates only 35% of the planned pipeline for new facilities is actually credible. Columbia economist Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh projects that the total investment required will reach $10.3 trillion through 2032, averaging 3.63% of US GDP annually, a larger relative share than the railroad or telecom booms.
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