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What's slowing down the AI buildout

What's really slowing down the AI buildout

worksinprogress.news

July 9, 2026

23 min read

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48/100

Summary

America has sufficient electricity to power its data centers, but the challenge lies in delivering it to the necessary locations. A major project, Stargate, is being developed in Abilene, Texas, as part of a larger initiative by OpenAI and Softbank.

Key Takeaways

The Stargate project in Abilene, Texas, is expected to cost over $40 billion and will require 1.2 gigawatts of electricity at peak load, equivalent to the energy needs of 313,000 median American homes.
The interconnection process for new data centers to the electric grid has significantly increased, with median wait times rising from less than 20 months in 2005 to 55 months in 2023.
Major AI company leaders, including Nvidia's Jensen Huang and OpenAI's Sam Altman, agree that future data centers will be power-limited, emphasizing the need for increased energy availability.
Between 1990 and 2024, the prices of electric motors, power electronics, processors, and batteries have dramatically decreased, with electric motors dropping by 97.5% and batteries by 98.8%.

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Community Sentiment

Negative

Positives

Project Kilby is being hailed as a smart solution, integrating data centers and power generators to minimize energy transmission costs — a game-changer for efficient AI infrastructure.
Bringing advanced models like Fable class into more hands could democratize AI access, sparking innovation and new applications beyond just enterprise users.

Concerns

The overwhelming bottleneck remains electricity availability, which is stalling AI growth — without power, even the best models are useless.
Commenters are skeptical about the reliance on gas turbines for data centers; they see it as a step backward in the climate crisis, not forward.
The sentiment is clear: AI data centers are offering diminishing returns on investment, raising concerns about their actual value to society and GDP.