Only half of US datacenter capacity planned for 2026 is actually under construction
Jump to main content
Search
REG AD
ON-PREM
Only half of US datacenter capacity planned for 2026 is actually under construction
Another fun example of AI hype and reality colliding
Dan Robinson
Dan<br>Robinson
Published<br>wed 17 Jun 2026 // 16:55 UTC
Don't count your bit barns before they've at least started to hatch. Developers continue to announce new datacenter construction projects, but construction work for many due to come online this year or next appear not to have commenced, while planned capacity may have been overestimated.<br>According to financial analyst Jefferies, known promises to build new stateside datacenters suggest 160 GW worth of infrastructure will be operational in the country by 2032<br>In a research note shared with The Register, the firm reports pervasive delays and claims that only 12 GW out of 24 GW of datacenter capacity scheduled for 2026 is currently under construction. The situation is even worse for the 2027/2028 timeframe, as substantial construction of as much as 80 percent of the planned capacity does not appear to have started yet.
REG AD
The reasons for the delays are familiar: zoning and/or permitting challenges, interconnection setbacks, problems accessing energy supply, labor shortages, and the signing of commercial contracts with end users.
REG AD
Power availability is a well-known issue, as are grid connection setbacks. The latter have grown so bad – reports of seven-year delays - that the US Energy Secretary directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to implement new rules to speed the process for customers such as datacenters.
MORE CONTEXT
Ignore rosy datacenter expansion projections – there isn't enough power
Feds snooze as US datacenter law set to lapse with no replacement in site
Datacenters are hoarding grid power just in case, says Uptime Institute
Datacenter growth may run into a power wall by 2030
Jefferies highlights another factor, that of duplicative counting inflating the planned total capacity due to hyperscalers making multiple requests to various energy utilities. For this reason, it does not expect the majority of the extra load forecast for 2026 and 2027/2028 to materialize.<br>Some investor expectations do not reflect real-world constraints, primarily labor, the report says, suggesting that 15-20 GW of capacity coming online per year is more realistic than the 40+ GW forecast by some for 2027-28.<br>Announced capacity should not be considered a reliable way of evaluating data campus load growth, Jefferies says, citing offtake agreements, permitting progress, financing, and a realistic construction timeline as better indicators.<br>The report points to strategies that operators are taking to circumvent the issues outlined above.<br>Behind-the-meter and hybrid models are solutions to the power problem, with “hybrid” referring to datacenters tending to take all they can get from the grid first, before later turning to behind-the-meter sources - typically on-site power generation.<br>Jefferies says that the build pipeline is shifting increasingly toward regions with more attractive interconnection and permitting options, pointing out that Texas had 14 GW of new capacity announced in the second quarter of this year alone. ®
us<br>power grid<br>on-prem<br>jefferies<br>construction delays<br>datacenter
REG AD
devops
Git good with Epic Games' new open source VCS, Lore
Got big binaries? Tired of other version control systems that treat them like inferior files? Lore might be worth a look
AI AND ML
If AGENTS.md smells ripe, your code won’t live up to the hype
Researchers urge developers to see that less is more when it comes to instructions
Digital sovereignty needs an operating model
PARTNER CONTENT Europe wants control over its own technology, but what does that look like?
NetworkS
Nvidia-backed optics vendor to boost wafer output by 4x to meet AI interconnect demand
Jensen can't risk semiconductor supply chains derailing the AI hype train
PAAS AND IAAS
Graviton 5 impresses, but please, for the love of all that's holy, stop calling them 'AI chips'
AWS better at running chip fabs than their mouths
CYBER-CRIME
Massive password-stealing attack hits 75k Fortinet firewalls
Why are you even reading this?! Rotate your passwords!!
MOST POPULAR
security
Feds freaked over Fable 5 after simple 'fix this code' prompt, not jailbreak, says researcher
ON-PREM
Amazon owns up to using 2.5bn gallons of H2O in its bit barns last year
Security
Angry bug hunter with Microsoft beef drops new Windows 0-day
SECURITY
Every employee’s password was stored in a single Excel file
PUBLIC SECTOR
Capita is about to sail past deadline to fix civil service pensions scheme
EVENTS
Architecting the Future: Unlocking Enterprise Data Services for Kubernetes
Join us to discover how to eliminate infrastructure silos and establish a standardized, enterprise-grade cloud-native...