'If one piece of your supply chain is delayed, then your whole project can't deliver': Nearly half of US data centers planned for 2026 canceled or delayed
and things could soon get much worse

Date:
Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:05:00 +0000

Description:
Data centers are being delayed or cancelled altogether, and the number of challenges operators face just continues to grow.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Pro Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter As many as one in two US data centers planned for 2026 could face delays or cancellations The global chip shortage
continues to strain supply, while demand soars Other challenges include
energy supply and local opposition Between a third and a half of all US data centers planned for 2026 are likely to be delayed or totally cancelled, Bloomberg reports, amid ongoing supply chain challenges and campus location concerns.

With an estimated 12-16GW of planned capacity, only 5GW is currently under construction and many projects remain having been announced, but with no physical progress yet. Maybe one of the most notable is OpenAI's $500 billion Stargate Project , with progress reportedly having stalled at Texas and data center buildouts falling behind the original timeline. Article continues
below You may like Barely any EU data centers are actually ready for AI - and upgrading could be a costly challenge Oracle and OpenAI drop plans for mega Stargate AI US data center Powering the AI data center boom: the infrastructure upgrades behind innovation Why are data centers being
cancelled or delayed? One of the main challenges data center operators face, as well as consumers, is the global chip shortage. "AI data center build-outs are crowding consumer categories out of memory and storage supply, which have already seen roughly five-fold and three-fold cost increases respectively since Q1 2025," Omdia Principal Analyst Ben Yeh wrote .

Data centers are also renowned for their intensive energy consumption (something investors say they want more transparency about), and many face challenges sourcing reliable electricity supplies for campuses that need to
be up and running 24/7. With grids already under pressure from electric vehicle adoption and other electrification strategies across heating and industry, some hyperscale projects have even included plans to build their
own power generators and fund connections to the grid.

All of this comes at a time when western countries are seeking to reduce
their reliance on cheaper and more readily available Chinese tech, with alternative manufacturing in the US struggling to scale quickly enough.

And finally, all of this aside, even if data centers do have everything they need to begin construction, local opposition has risen in recent months over environmental, noise and energy concerns. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me
with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

All of this shows that the AI boom is no longer just constrained by chips alone just in the past couple of years, we've seen a shift from compute
being the major hurdle to power infrastructure and local communities.

We can only watch to see how these difficulties pan out over the long term, but with space-bound data centers a long way off, somewhere between a "pipe dream" and early-stage testing, terrestrial data centers are our only bet for now. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/if-one-piece-of-your-supply-chain-is-delayed-the n-your-whole-project-cant-deliver-nearly-half-of-us-data-centers-planned-for-2 026-canceled-or-delayed-and-things-could-soon-get-much-worse


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