"Two of the world's biggest data center developers have projects in Nvidia Corp.'s hometown that may sit empty for years because the local utility isn't ready to supply electricity. In Santa Clara, California, where the world's biggest supplier of artificial-intelligence chips is based, Digital Realty Trust Inc. applied in 2019 to build a data center. Roughly six years later, the development remains an empty shell awaiting full energization."
"The fate of the two facilities highlights a major challenge for the US tech sector and indeed the wider economy. While demand for data centers has never been greater, driven by the boom in cloud computing and AI, access to electricity is emerging as the biggest constraint. That's largely because of aging power infrastructure, a slow build-out of new transmission lines and a variety of regulatory and permitting hurdles."
Two major data center projects in Santa Clara remain vacant because the city-owned utility cannot yet supply the required power. Digital Realty and Stack Infrastructure have completed shell buildings but await full energization while Silicon Valley Power works to upgrade capacity. Rising demand for cloud and AI computing is intensifying the strain on aging grids, limited transmission build-out and slow permitting processes. BloombergNEF projects US electricity needs for AI could more than double by 2035. Large AI complexes are being sited in lower-cost regions, but those locations also face ongoing power-source and infrastructure challenges.
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